Digital Payments and the New Economy

April 30, 2019

digital payments

and the new economy

African Economic Research Consortium’s Executive Director, Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, participated in a high-level regional workshop jointly organized by the Central Bank of Tunisia and the World Bank on “Digital Payments and the New Economy” on 23 April 2019 in Tunisia.

Professor Ndung’u shared his experiences while Central Bank Governor of Kenya. His tenure saw the rapid rise of Kenya in the financial inclusion space with global recognition stemming from the pioneering and transformative M-Pesa.

M-Pesa started in 2007 as an electronic money transfer product that enables users to store value on their mobile phones. It is based on a platform of electronic units of money that can be used for multiple purposes including transfers to other users, payments for goods and services, and conversion to and from cash.

M-Pesa and similar digital financial services are representative of the mobile banking revolution in Kenya: financial institutions have embraced M-Pesa as a platform to manage micro accounts, build customer deposits, and broaden their customer network. As a consequence, Kenya has emerged as a leader in financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For an insider’s view of the regulatory pathway that enabled Kenya’s digital financial services sector to thrive and develop, and draws some policy recommendations from the Kenyan case aimed at all policymakers that seek to catalyse and consolidate a mobile phone-based banking revolution in their respective jurisdictions, please download: M-Pesa, A Success Story of Digital Financial Inclusion