Kenya's apex bank on Thursday vowed to accelerate the pace of financial inclusion.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge said over the past ten years the proportion of adult population with access to formal financial services has risen from 27 to 75 percent in 2016.
"This means that 25 percent of the population does not have access to formal financial services and so our goal of universal financial inclusion is yet to be achieved," Njoroge said during the sixth Annual Banking Research Conference.
The two-day event brought over 100 delegates to review progress and innovations of the banking sector.
Njoroge said large swathes of land especially in the northern region are largely devoid of financial access points and therefore much work remains to be done.
He called on commercial banks to address the financial exclusion by removing physical and non-physical barriers to financial inclusion. The CBK noted that while the country has succeeded in financial access, it is lagging in other dimensions.
"We need to improve on the usage and quality of financial services so that financial inclusion can have maximum impact on development," he added.
The apex bank urged commercial banks to put in place customer-centric policies so as to reverse the trend of the rising number of dormant accounts.
Kenya Bankers Association Director of Research Jared Osoro said that Kenya has harnessed mobile telephony technology to revolutionize its financial services sector.
Osoro said that the country needs to deepen its financial inclusion to reap its benefits. "We need to encourage use of financial savings and credit products as a way of wealth creation at the household level," he said.