NAIROBI, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to introduce policies that will provide incentives for banks to increase the level of the country's financial inclusion, a senior government official said on Friday.
Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury Henry Rotich told a media briefing in Nairobi that the polices will allow banks to provide Kenyans with services that are price-competitive, convenient, efficient, and secure.
"We are constantly reviewing our policies so that more Kenyans have access to financial services and effectively setting them on a path towards better economic status," Rotich said.
"In this way, we will achieve lower lending rates on a sustainable basis and move away from interventions that hurt availability of credit and reverse the gains we have made in financial inclusion," he said during the launch of PesaLink, a bank to bank money transfer platform which has been operating on a pilot basis.
Pesalink, which is owned by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), allows customers to send between 0.1 U.S. cents and 9,999 dollars from their mobile handsets instantly.
Rotich said that PesaLink is among the technologies that will truly contribute towards lowering the cost of banking services in the country.
He said that government policies will also enable Kenya to become a digital economy which is in line with the goal of promoting financial inclusion.
"The laws and regulations we have put in place are geared towards achieving a cash-lite economy, and eventually a cash less one," Rotich said.
KBA CEO Habil Olaka said that in the short period that PesaLink has been in operation, the service has enjoyed a steady growth in customers deposits.
Olaka said that so far 26 out of the 41 commercial banks are signed on as members accounting for 90 percent of all bank customers in the country.
KBA said that PesaLink is an ideal digital platform because it addresses the need of integrating retail payments in the country.
