of national strategies that promote financial inclusion are critical to enhancing access to a diverse range of financial products to the unbanked in kenya, the mandate of the government to enhance the deepening of financial markets by fostering access, efficiency and stability is captured under kenya ’ s vision 2030. the central bank ’ s approach to achieving its role under vision 2030, is centered on the promotion of an enabling legal and regulatory framework that fosters the development of a diverse range of financial service providers, while guaranteeing its dual mandate of financial stability and financial integrity. central to this objective has been the licensing and regulation of microfinance banks. the first microfinance bank in kenya was licensed in may, 2009. this paved the way for 11 other microfinance banks which have been licenced to date. the 12 licenced microfinance banks have made a significant contribution to financial inclusion in kenya. this is evidenced by the number of active deposit and loan accounts as at december 2015 which was 931, 585 and 342, 481 respectively. in value terms, this represented bis central bankers ’ speeches ksh. 40. 5 billion in deposits and ksh. 46. 9 billion in advances. further, microfinance banks had a footprint of 109 branches and 1, 154 agents as at december 2015. while commendable achievements have been made in the past 6 years, the microfinance sector in kenya still has considerable opportunities and challenges that institutions need to tackle in order to realize their full potential. key amongst these challenges include the high cost of credit, inadequate products and services, and weak consumer protection frameworks. microfinance institutions must be willing to make a difference if the full benefits of microfinance and financial inclusion are to be realized. microfinance institutions must be prepared to employ innovative delivery channels to reduce their operational costs, and thereby enhance their reach and efficiency. an essential element in this process is recognizing the characteristics of the customers of these institutions and tailoring lending mechanisms to meet their situations. policymakers, on their part, should support the development of appropriate support infrastructure to facilitate the last mile delivery of suitable financial services. therefore, the development of proportionate, risk - based, regulations by policymakers is critical to guaranteeing the development of a dynamic, robust and sustainable microfinance framework for a country. the starting point towards this collaborative structure is a consultative process to developing a forward - looking framework for regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions. developing

scientists, programmers, software developers and design thinkers. the challenge, of course, is not specific to fintech firms ; it also affects us as regulators. however, based on our discussions with fintech firms, the race for acquiring such skills sets is pronounced for fintechs, especially if they are still in their 7 information and communication technology 8 johannesburg centre for software engineering ( jcse ) ( wits university ) and the institute of information technology professionals south africa ( iitpsa ), 2019, south african ict skills survey page 6 of 9 early phases of development and / or maturity. it is less so for big - tech firms with wellestablished markets. access to refined financial services data finally, we turn to the importance of data, specifically refined and granular data. it has become cliche to say that ‘ data is the new oil of the economy ’. as the digital economy continues to be embedded through the use of mobile devices, the use of social media platforms, and generally increasing activities over the internet and online commercial platforms, we will increasingly create and leave behind ‘ digital bread crumbs ’ of unprecedented volumes. never before have we seen such volumes of data. and for the first time in human history, we also now have evolving tools and techniques at our disposal through cloud - computing, ai and machine - learning methods to handle such volumes of data. however, in this new digital economy, the availability of, and access to, data related to, for example, transactional payments or specific customer behaviour, has become a key competitive driver. access to both structured and especially unstructured data can provide significant competitive advantages to those who own it. fintechs in particular are exploring the use of big data to produce new services such as product comparisons and tailored solutions based on consumer - specific data. while big data presents new opportunities, the scope of available data, and how to govern access to that data, poses new challenges for the financial services industry and regulatory authorities around the world. as a result of the above, access to refined data is a key issue that regulatory authorities have to deal with. examples of addressing it through open banking and open finance efforts are increasing in many jurisdictions. for south africa, it is important to land on the policy imperatives for such efforts. there are a number of open questions for authorities. these include ( but are not limited to ) : should incumbents be required to share their data with fintechs? page 7 of 9 should the standards for sharing