Impressions from Nairobi, Kenya: Final Multi-Stakeholder Meeting

Corrinne Ngurukie, YouthSave’s Regional Technical Advisor for Africa, attended the final MSM in Kenya on October 23, 2014. Below are her impressions:

1. Gender response to youth savings. The media particularly were keen to gain a deeper understanding of KIPPRA’s, YouthSave’s research partner in Kenya, presentation that indicated that boys were opening accounts more than girls (even though there was no significant difference in savings amounts). KIPPRA suggested that several factors such as the marketing approach used by the bank could be attributed to this result. Karen Austrian of Population Council shared further insights based on her organization’s experience working with adolescent girls in Uganda and Kenya when she noted that savings is only one of many elements that girls need in Kenya to progress towards socio-economic independence/empowerment. Building social and health assets is also critical for adolescent girls. Thus a combination of financial education, reproductive health and other life skills trainings is critical in influencing a range of positive behavior, including financial behavior, among adolescent girls.

2. Age limits create an obstacle to access. MSM participants observed that the issue of age limits for opening and operating youth savings accounts is a broad issue that requires the involvement of various government agencies, including the registrar of persons that were not present at the convening. Building the impetus to achieve a change in the age of majority in Kenya, participants observed, would need more than an economic inclusion policy rationale. To get the policy changed, thus improving or increasing access to financial services, likely more than financial inclusion would need to be at stake. Attendees also pointed out the need to consider Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CFT) regulations and standards in addition to KYC requirements.

   However, the Kenya Bankers Association indicated that this is an area of interest and potentially one the members could pursue as part of their discussions on social impacts and sustainable development as stipulated in Vision 2030, Kenya’s long term national development strategy.

   This openness on the part of the Kenya Bankers Association provides an opportunity to continue the discussion on these issues through presenting a concept paper or brief on project findings as well as share successful examples from other developing countries that have lowered restrictions to promote access to stakeholders like the KBA, the Financial Service Regulator Forum, National Economic Social Council (NESC) and others who were present at the MSM.

3. Leveraging Technology. Though technology could make youth savings scalable and sustainable, while improving access to youth in remote areas, without introducing some type of flexibility on age requirements, the limitation of youth using technology to transact remains a challenge. However, Equity Group Foundation and the Kenya Bankers Association panelist, Josephine Njuguna, talked of the potential of developing an FE application to impart FE knowledge to youth who spend a lot of time on their phones.

4. Advancing Financial Education. The Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) informed the forum that the institution’s contemplated curriculum, reforms include integrating financial literacy into the curriculum. KICD is an institute established through the new 2013 constitution of Kenya. Its core function is to conduct research and develop curricular for all levels of education below university level. The organization sees financial education as an important dimension that needs to cut across various subjects and not be treated as a stand-alone subject or as a small part of one subject like it has been in the past, for example within the “Business Studies” subject. Business Studies, a subject currently taught in schools, is limited in content and does not promote application of learned content. Therefore, the introduction of financial education would be an added value for students.

   Following a thorough assessment and with the support of Financial Service Regulator Forum that signed an MOU with KICD in August to advance financial education in Kenya, the institute (KICD) is set to pilot FE (content and delivery) in 2015. A steering committee that will include some members of the current working group of which Save the Children is a member, will be constituted and led by the KICD to coordinate this activity. This important step forward was committed to at the MSM.

   In the meantime, KICD welcomed practitioners to provide suggestions towards content and delivery design.

In all, the MSM program demonstrated that there is still much to do to get concrete commitments from regulators and policy makers on promoting and expanding youth savings in Kenya. The opportunity to reach out to and continue discussions with stakeholders such as the Kenya Bankers Association, the Central Bank of Kenya, relevant government ministries and agencies focusing on youth, and other regulator committees will continue to exists and we should build on the present momentum.