Tracking Progress Towards Financial Access in Kenya

The main takeaway from the Global Assets Project’s “Tracking Progress toward Financial Access” event at the New America Foundation this week was that we must learn how to apply the lessons learned from the data to further financial access for the poor. The event’s central concern, as articulated by Jamie Zimmerman, Director of the Global Assets Project, was whether the data collected will lead us to a greater understanding of the state of the field and the shape of its future direction.

Kenya offers an important starting point for this discussion. The rise of mobile money and other innovations has become the center of attention for financial inclusion experts; however, the data behind Kenya’s transformation is to a lesser degree examined and understood.

Eric Tyler began digging into this data with a demonstration of SPINNAKER’s new Kenya Financial Inclusion Data Page. Eric mentioned that, “one of the important lessons from our research is that technology has transformed the delivery of financial products in Kenya.” 75 percent of the institutions surveyed in a new research report launched at the event reported that they offered one or more of their savings products over a mobile phone.

Mireya Almazán, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, opened the panel discussion by emphasizing that, “if the approach of practitioners is to be data driven, we must rely on the work produced by the people in this room.” Mireya asked each of the panelists what they thought were the potential uses for the data and what they believe are the major gaps in tracking progress toward financial inclusion in data.

Billy Jack of Georgetown University shared his perspective on the possible uses for the data and how to leverage data to maximize its impact on increasing financial inclusion for the poor. He believes that the data can be used to help us think more critically about how the differences between countries have arisen. The data can provide us a comparative perspective of the reasons behind the growth of services such as M-PESA in Kenya and the actions that others countries can take to replicate the growth of Kenya’s financial sector.

Leora Klapper of the World Bank’s Global Findex project spoke about how to make the data actionable. She mentioned that the data can help policymakers to notice the gaps in financial inclusion, and between the rich and the poor. Additionally, Leora mentioned that the private sector can benefit from the data by using it to identify gaps and places where opportunities for savings can be created.

Scott Gaul of Mix Market praised Kenya’s efforts to make data available publicly, but also commented on the different places he saw data gaps in Kenya. Scott identified three issues related to Kenya: First, the inadequacy of Safaricom’s data to allow granular decision-making to take place. Second, the lack of data on the informal financial sector that helps determine whether they reach underserved areas. Third, the absence of data on the entire suite of financial services accessible to the poor.

Eric Tyler spoke about the importance of not only making the data available but also accessible to users. One of the main goals of SPINNAKER is to make the data user-friendly by presenting it in a visual form that simplifies its operation. Policymakers, implementers, and other key players can utilize the data to inform their efforts to design innovative products that improve people’s lives. With this objective in mind, SPINNAKER’s website provides an online platform that offers access to data on savings products across the world and highlights innovation in the field.

All of the panelists considered gathering data to be a vital first step, but they also agreed on the next steps: finding out what to do with the data and what kinds of stories we can tell with it. We encourage you to piece through the data (attachments below) and share with us (@globalassetsNAF) what stories, patterns, or trends you see.