growth rate of 50 percent ; the number of bank branches at the end of july 2010 stood at 1, 020 an increase of 24 branches from the end of december 2009 ; the number of bank accounts has increased by 35 percent from 7. 9 million accounts in july 2009 to 10. 7 million as at the end of july 2010. this impressive growth has been supported by the expansion of banks into new market segments, prudent risk management and enhanced economic prospects underpinned by a stable macroeconomic environment. the central bank expects the banking sector to continue on this growth trajectory. ongoing reform initiatives by the government and cbk will serve to further propel the banking sector to new frontiers of financial inclusion for more kenyans. for this reason, the central bank together with kenya bankers association has been keen to move in the directions that market requires support. mr. chairman : we need now to concentrate on reducing costs of doing business for banks so that we can bring down costs of financial services. for example, the recently introduced credit information sharing platform will enable banks to extend more credit to productive sectors boosting wealth and employment creation. the information sharing platform will help develop the required information capital that will support an adoption of a new collateral technology in the market and reduce the information search costs. this will be especially important for small and medium enterprises and individuals who have been constrained in accessing credit due to lack of physical collateral. however, the benefits of credit information sharing will only accrue if banks and other information providers ensure information availed to the bureaus is accurate and credible. it is therefore imperative that banks and their customers and licensed credit reference bureaus continue to work together to ensure accuracy and credibility of records. on its part the central bank will continue to work with other players to extend the reach of the credit information sharing mechanism beyond the banking sector. but so far, we are encouraged with the first batch of information sent to crb africa – 78 percent of it was accurate – with no errors. this shows that the information template reflects the true picture in the banking sector. ladies and gentlemen : the second area in reducing cost of doing business is the cost of rolling out branch networks to reach kenyans cost - effectively. this will work well with the introduction of agent banking. the cbk has so far licensed 5, 892 agents since the roll out in may 2010. ladies and gentlemen : the third area to lower cost of doing business is for you banks – you have to develop innovative products for

were relaxed and financial inclusion fund ( fif ) with an initial corpus of ₹2000 crore was established to support adoption of technology and capacity building. financial inclusion was also a one of the consideration for issue of differentiated banking license for small finance banks ( sfbs ) and payments banks ( pbs ) in 2015. the sfbs were setup to further financial inclusion through tailored deposit products and for providing credit to small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries, and other unorganized sector entities through technology led low - cost operations. payments banks were also set up to provide small savings accounts and payments / remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low - income households, small businesses, and other unorganised sector entities / other users. the pradhan mantri jan dhan yojana ( pmjdy ) and national strategy for financial inclusion ( nsfi ) 2019 - 2024 has given a further fillip to these efforts. the nsfi defines the vision and key objectives of the financial inclusion policies in india to help expand and sustain the financial inclusion process at the national level through a broad convergence of action involving all the stakeholders in the financial sector. the strategy aims to provide access to formal financial services in an affordable manner, broadening & deepening financial inclusion and promoting financial literacy & consumer protection while the reach of the banks amongst the ranks of the underserved got a boost through the pmjdy. some data would help us get a perspective. under pmjdy, 46. 40 crore beneficiary accounts have been opened so far with outstanding balance of ₹1. 73 lakh crore in these accounts 2. as of june 2022, there are 1. 59 lakh branches operated by scbs with a total deposit of more than 170 lakh crore https : / / www. pmjdy. gov. in as of august 24, 2022 rupees 3, which translates to close to approximately 15 branches per 1 lakh of population. this is further complemented by a network of 2. 17 lakh atms 4, out of which 47 % are in rural and semi - urban areas and there are close to 32 lakh business correspondents engaged by banks 5. as per data from world bank ’ s global findex database, as of 2021, 78 % of indian adults ( population with 15 years or more of age ) had a bank account as compared to 53 % in 2014. we have been able to provide banking access to