Publications

This report examines the causality between branchless banking and financial capability with an in-depth look at how consumers in Kenya’s coastal region are using mobile financial services to manage their personal finances.

This paper identifies the ways in which current financial service offerings are used and deployed by women and men towards achieving their goals for wellbeing. In the context of an on-going, gendered gap in access to formal financial services the research set out to investigate how and in what ways this relates to the aspirations […]

In what ways do norms and expectations about the actual processes of saving and borrowing create a disjuncture between the formal sector and indigenous experiences? Bridging this divide between every day and formal financial concepts and practices is part of the key to being able to develop more appropriate products and services that will support […]

Mobile money transfers (MMT) have enabled informal financial sector transactions to grow and operate more efficiently, offering increased competition to the formal financial sector. Recent research has found that MMT is facilitating informal interpersonal transfers that are far more varied and complex than suggested by the ‘send money home’ domestic remittance entry-point rationale of M-Pesa […]

In February, 2012 FSD Kenya engaged Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) to propose the broad outlines of a financial education curriculum for Savings Groups (SGs) as well as options for its delivery. MFO visited CRS and CARE programme sites in Malindi and Kisumu conducting focus group discussions with SGs, field staff, and agency management. The purpose of […]

This report seeks to provide an initial lens on the current state of financial capability in Kenya. Using existing data collected as part of FinAccess 2009, the report explores various dimensions of financial capability specifically developed to reflect ground realities that Kenyans face in their financial lives. For example, in a developed country context, a […]