Mobile banking revolution in Kenya

Video

Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at Blavatnik School of Government as the inaugural recipient of the Yaw Adjepong Boateng Memorial Fellowship, which brings a highly experienced senior official from an African Central Bank to Oxford for three months.

Governor Ndung’u held the position of Kenya's Central Bank Governor for eight years, from 2007 until March 2015. He is credited with paving the way for the mobile banking revolution in Kenya, which has had a dramatic impact on financial inclusion: in 2006 just before ‘M-PESA’ was launched, only 26% of Kenyans had access to financial services, and by 2013 that had risen to 67%.

During his Fellowship at the Blavatnik School, Governor Ndung’u is reflecting on and writing up his experiences, including in the form of a case study for the School to use in MPP teaching. On 11-12 February, the School also hosted a high-level Roundtable on ‘Consolidating Africa’s Mobile Banking Revolution’ where senior regulators, private sector representatives and academics discussed and distilled lessons on how best to regulate mobile banking.

In this short clip Professor Njuguna Ndung’u explains the impact of mobile banking.