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Lessons from Inclusive Banking Experiments in South Africa and Kenya

This paper examines the experience of inclusive banking experiments in South Africa and Kenya. The Kenyan example revolves around the development of mobile money through market led innovation alongside evolutions in the legislative and regulatory process.

In South Africa a different approach was taken, with the development of the multi-sector Financial Sector Charter and a National Bank Account (‘Mzansi’) Hawkins gives an account of the debates in South Africa and the development of a political support base for pragmatic financial sector policy focused on inclsuion. However, she concludes that despite of all of these forces for potential change, many of the objectives of the experiment failed to materialize.

[This paper was presented at the UNEP Inquiry/Centre for International Governance Innovation Academic Symposium on the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, held in Waterloo (Canada) in December 2014]