Group items tagged

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) outlined a five-year digitalization plan to modernize the country's domestic payment landscape. The CBK says it will work to define standards for API development and mandate data portability with hopes that more options and innovative solutions will be made available for users in Kenya to choose from. These standards will include API specifications for identification, verification and authentication; customer account information/data access; transaction initiation; and formats and coding languages for APIs. https://www.centralbank.go.ke/2020/12/23/invitation-for-public-comments-on-the-draft-kenya-national-payments-system-vision-and-strategy-2021-2025/

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) does not consider the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) a "compelling priority in the short to medium term" but it will continue monitoring developments in the area to inform future assessments of the need for CBDC in Kenya . In February 2022, the CBK issued a consultative paper on CBDC and the comments have been compiled into a new discussion paper. It also provides an update on key global CBDC developments since February 2022, concluding that "the allure of CBDCs is fading". https://www.centralbank.go.ke/uploads/press_releases/103592893_Press%20Release%20-%20Issuance%20of%20Discussion%20Paper%20on%20Central%20Bank%20Digital%20Currency%20-%20Comments%20from%20the%20Public.pdf

The Central Bank of Kenya published a discussion paper seeking public input on the potential benefits, risks and regulatory issues of introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Kenya. The paper seems skeptical regarding domestic use cases, given that the country already has a vibrant digital payments ecosystem. However, the paper highlights that using a CBDC might improve cross-border payments by making them more efficient and less expensive. https://www.centralbank.go.ke/2022/02/10/discussion-paper-on-central-bank-digital-currency/

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has resumed charges for mobile money and bank account transactions. Transaction charges were stopped in 2020 to facilitate the use of mobile money during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the CBK resumes charges, they will be significantly lower than before the pandemic.

Over the past 10 years mobile-based lending has grown in Kenya, but there are concerns about the business model. The most prominent is the debt culture that has become a byproduct of mobile-based lending: borrowers fall into the trap of living on loans and accumulating bad debt.

A new data protection law in Kenya is setting a high standard for the rest of the continent. As the country looks to engender more safeguards in the collection, handling and sharing of data, Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta has approved legislation which complies with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

In Kenya, formal financial inclusion has risen to 83% from 27% in 2006, while complete exclusion has narrowed to 11% from 41%. Also, the disparities in financial access between rich and poor, men and women, and rural and urban areas also declined remarkably.

The Central Bank of Kenya announced measures that will facilitate increased use of mobile money transactions instead of cash. While the immediate objective is to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 by handling banknotes, this will also reduce the use of cash in the economy over the medium term. The current AML/CFT frameworks will continue to apply and CBK will closely monitor the implementation of these emergency measures.

The IMF published feedback on the Central Bank of Kenya central bank digital currency (CBDC) discussion paper published in February 2022. The IMF recommended that the paper emphasize that CBDC will "do no harm" to existing private-sector digital payment solutions. A poorly designed CBDC risks taking away customers of banks and other digital finance providers, increasing the cost of financing for banks, and depriving banks of valuable information they obtain through establishing customer relations.

The Kenya Information Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is seeking the registration of mobile money services as separate business units. It would compel the telecommunications regulator to ensure that mobile money services are licensed as banks.

"There is no longer any doubt that high-altitude balloons can be used to provide cellular service to remote locations or places reeling from natural disaster. The question for Loon - an Internet-providing balloon service owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company - is whether that technology is commercially viable."

Under the deal, M-Pesa's 24 million users and 173,000 local merchants will be linked to Visa's 61 million merchants and its more than 3 billion cards. The mobile phone-based M-Pesa will serve as a virtual card, allowing users to make payments abroad when they travel and also letting them transfer cash from their Visa-linked debit cards to their M-Pesa wallet even when they are abroad.

Tigo Tanzania launched a service that allows all Tigo Pesa customers to send and receive cash on their mobile money wallets from M-PESA in Kenya, MTN in Uganda and MTN and Airtel in Rwanda.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a report on the foundational digital infrastructure necessary for an inclusive digital economy and seamless cross-border transactions around the world, in collaboration with Mastercard and the central banks of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Ghana, and Kenya. The report highlighted four key pillars; digital identity, authorisation and consent, payments interoperability and data exchange standards.

According to Chainalysis, global crypto adoption has leveled off in the last year after growing consistently since mid-2019. Emerging markets dominate the index. Out of the top 20 ranked countries, ten are lower middle income (:Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Nepal, Kenya, and Indonesia), eight are upper middle income (Brazil, Thailand, Russia, China, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador) and two are high income (United States and United Kingdom).

The Bank of Uganda is reportedly considering CBDC issuance, and exploring legal options for future amendments in financial laws that will facilitate it. Details are sketchy, and it's not clear whether the central bank is considering retail or wholesale CBDC, or both, but it sounds like they're focused on a blockchain-based and/or mobile money platforms.

MoneyGram launched its stablecoin-powered payment channel, giving users the ability to send USD Coin (USDC) payments worldwide that can be withdrawn as cash by recipients. The service is being rolled out across several key remittance markets, including Canada, the United States, Kenya and the Philippines. Global cash-out functionality will be available by the end of June. To encourage adoption, the USDC transfer service will carry zero fees for the first 12 months. The new transfer service was built on the Stellar (XLM) blockchain and allows Stellar wallet users to send USDC to recipients around the world.

Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge has reportedly warned that lack of access to smartphones by more than half of mobile users in the country will hamper the rollout of its proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) that requires access to the Internet. Of course readers of this blog know that the Governor has been misinformed, as there are a number of available CBDC platforms that do not require smartphones, including those of Celo, Roberto Giori and WhisperCash.

Mobile money isn't the one easy fix to global poverty - there's no such thing - but it is an extraordinarily simple tool that works remarkably well. And yet, a decade after it first took off, it remains in many places underutilized. The evidence base for it is significantly stronger than the evidence base for popular financial access interventions like microloans. And there's a great deal the global development community could do to make it more possible in the countries where it hasn't taken off, from helping governments develop fair and limited regulation and taxation frameworks to directly dispersing money to people through mobile money systems. That sort of work isn't flashy, but it lays the groundwork for a world where everyone can save, send, and spend money from their phones - and that, the evidence suggests, can make a really big difference.

YENTS, a stablecoin developed by the Kenya's Young Entrepreneurs Network (YEN), has entered into testing under the local regulatory sandbox. YEN, which organizes golfing tournaments to facilitate networking opportunities for Kenyan entrepreneurs, plans on initially using the stablecoin as a means of payment for sporting events and training programs. YEN intends to launch the token in November, and hopes to use it to accept investments into a planned golf course.