Kenya ranked top among 26 countries in financial inclusion

A customer makes transaction at an M-Pesa shop.

Kenya has been ranked top among 26 countries in financial inclusion in the latest report by Centre for Technology Innovation at US-based Brookings Institution.

The 2017 Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) FDIP evaluated commitment to and progress toward financial inclusion across a set of 26 geographically, politically and economically diverse countries.

The FDIP team produces an annual report and scorecard that measures countries on four dimensions of financial inclusion, country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment, and the adoption of traditional and digital financial services.

On the 2017 scorecard, Kenya received 86 per cent of the total possible points across all four dimensions, meaning it ranked first out of all countries surveyed.

It was followed by Brazil and Mexico at 79 per cent as Colombia, South Africa and Uganda settled for position four, five and six respectively at 76 per cent score.

Bottom was Egypt at 53, Ethiopia 54 as Haiti, Afghanistan tied at 60 per cent respectively.

“Countries have increasingly recognised that advancing access to and usage of affordable, secure formal financial services can contribute to their development objectives,” said FDIP authors Robin Lewis, John Villasenor and Darrell West.

This is the third year in a row that Kenya has received the top score on the FDIP scorecard.

Mobile capacity

Its overall score increased by two percentage points over last year, when it received 84 per cent of the total possible points.

The country received its highest score of 94 per cent in the regulatory environment category, followed by 89 per cent both in mobile capacity and country commitment categories.

In addition, Kenya received the highest score (78 per cent) among all countries on the adoption dimension of the scorecard, primarily due to its considerable rates of mobile money adoption among low-income adults and women.

However, further opportunities for progress remain, the report authors said.

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