AFI is holding a member training on New Frontiers in Digital Financial Services in collaboration with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Kenya School of Monetary Studies on 26-28 September 2016. There will be 36 delegates from 12 countries and 14 institutions attending the event. The training is being led by Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) along with speakers from GSMA, Tigo Tanzania, CGAP and Commercial Bank of Africa.

Given the rapid changes in the area of digital financial services (DFS), it is not surprising that AFI members have identified capacity building on DFS related issues as an important area to focus on. This training is the last of a series of three capacity building events on DFS in collaboration with CBK.

A Joint Learning Program of DFS was held in May 2016, followed by an Intermediate Level Training on DFS in July 2016 for those AFI members embarking on their DFS journey. And this training is for AFI members who have already made significant progress in DFS initiatives and are in the expansion phase.

Kenya has been in the forefront of innovations in DFS and the efforts continue.

For example, Mr. Stephen Mwaura, Head, National Payment Systems, Central Bank of Kenya, in his inaugural speech shared that in 2015, the payments made via the mobile phone money transfer service was equivalent to 42% of the total GDP.

Between March 2015 and March 2016, the value of transactions increased by 27% from 4.2 trillion to 5.3 trillion KES. This was made possible by increasing the number of touch points for mobile money transfer services and mobile money accounts which currently stand at 39 million transacting USD 2.7 billion.

He said that for the success of DFS initiatives, “3C’s” are important:

• Capacity of individuals who are behind the designing of the DFS initiatives, such as the participants;
• Capacity of the regulatory institutions who are responsible for creating and enabling environment for promoting innovative DFS initiatives;
• Capacity of the DFS service providers.

Mr. Mwaura reiterated the importance of capacity building on leadership skills along with technical expertise and urged AFI to consider that aspect in future capacity building initiatives.

The training also witnessed discussions on safeguarding customer funds, followed by discussions on the issues of financial integrity in relation to AML/CFT. AFI members had an in-depth discussion and debate on the issues as they shared the approaches their countries had taken. The participants appreciated the methods used in the training and for identifying the most relevant topics in the agenda.