njuguna ndung ’ u : improving access to financial services in kenya address by prof njuguna ndung ’ u, governor of the central bank of kenya, at the launch of airtel money transfer service, nairobi, 10 august 2011. * * * hon. samuel poghisio, minister for information and communications ; dr. bitange ndemo, permanent secretary, ministry of information and communications ; mr. charles njoroge, director general, communications commission of kenya ; n. arjun, airtel chief projects and transformation officer, airtel africa ; rene meza, managing director, airtel kenya ; distinguished guests : ladies and gentlemen : it gives me great pleasure to be here this morning during this historic launch of airtel money transfer service brand into the kenyan financial sector following the successful application early this year by airtel to re - brand and re - launch the service and subsequent approval by the central bank of kenya. ladies and gentlemen : i am informed that the key objective of airtel money brand in line with this launch is twofold : first, to provide a convenient, affordable, and easily accessible money transfer service to kenyans of all walks of life and second, to provide the banked members of the society with a convenient way to access and transact funds held in their bank accounts. this objective is in tandem with the central bank policy on adoption of innovative technological platforms to scale up access to financial services. in fact, mobile phone financial services have in particular presented kenya with an opportunity to significantly upscale access to financial services cost effectively. it has also shown there is a market and everyone now wants a slice of it. ladies and gentlemen : the kenyan mobile phone financial services story has become a much acclaimed global case study. to date, over 17. 8 million kenyans transfer over ksh. 3. 1 billion to each other daily with over 1. 1 million transactions. in particular, and in terms of registered users and agents ’ base, i am informed that airtel controls 18 percent of the registered users and 25 percent of agents. further, i wish to commend airtel for planning to carry out an extensive awareness campaign immediately after this launch in order to stimulate the uptake of the service in addition to the recent extensive country wide agent recruitment exercise by the company. it is my firm belief that this will positively impact on the visibility of the airtel brand in the market. in fact, there are so many areas not yet fully covered out there

, purpose and planet. but what does all this mean to financial institutions and fintechs? financial institutions and fintechs have played a pivotal role globally in supporting the covid - 19 response. this has certainly been the case in africa where the central bank of kenya hosted the virtual africa hackathon 2020 in august, targeting the health and economic dimensions of the pandemic. the hackathon witnessed an impressive array of innovative solutions from fintechs in africa, europe and the middle east. the solutions presented included financing of smes, cash transfers to vulnerable groups, enhancing agriculture value chains and covid - 19 contacttracing. these solutions when scaled up will play an important role, not only in the context of the pandemic, but also in contributing to the implementation of the sdgs. my challenge therefore to financial institutions and fintechs is to build on this momentum as we emerge from the covid - 19 crisis. as i finish, i would be remiss if i did not point out that there are fundamental barriers and risks associated with digital financing. over 700 million people still lack access to mobile broadband and over 3 billion lack effective digital access due to affordability and skills gaps, with women disproportionately excluded. as the world increasingly relies on digital financing, there are risks of a loss of privacy, increased cyber risks and market concentration. seizing the opportunities and addressing barriers and risks requires concerted action from policy makers, regulators, private sector, international development community, and civil society organizations. investments are needed in universal, accessible, affordable and secure digital infrastructure. capabilities of digital finance providers, consumers and regulators need enhancing. strategic alignment between the push for digitalized economies and national development needs is required. governance of digital financing needs strengthening, particularly for solutions that have cross - border spillover impacts. the covid - 19 crisis has presented the world with the historic opportunity to reshape finance and place people at the centre. let us not waste this crisis, let us seize the opportunity. thank you for your attention!