Kenya's phone banking gets global praise

Speaking in Marrakech, Morocco, during the on-going UN climate change conference, John Roome, World Bank’s Senior Director of Climate Change said Kenya’s success in mobile banking can be emulated worldwide.PHOTO: COURTESY

The World Bank has praised Kenya for using mobile banking to fight hunger and poverty.

Speaking in Marrakech, Morocco, during the on-going UN climate change conference, John Roome, World Bank’s Senior Director of Climate Change said Kenya’s success in mobile banking can be emulated worldwide.

“Kenya is leading the world in this with its mobile banking platform and the private sector needs to come in to ensure that financing is aligned to address vulnerable cases,” he said

The bank’s officials spoke when they launched a report on natural disasters.

“Efforts to build poor people’s resilience are already gaining ground, the report shows. For example, Kenya’s social protection system provided additional resources to vulnerable farmers well before the 2015 drought, helping them prepare for and mitigate its impacts,” Roome said.

The bank, in a report titled ‘Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters’ said the world loses $520 billion(Sh52.9 Trillions) annually to natural disasters which also push 26 million people into poverty.

“Storms, floods, and droughts have dire human and economic consequences, with poor people often paying the heaviest price. Building resilience to disasters not only makes economic sense, it is a moral imperative,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

The bank warned that human and economic impacts of extreme weather on poverty are more devastating than previously thought.