Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

In the past few years Kenya has received widespread acclaim as a rising digital power on the African continent. Terms like ‘Silicon Savannah’ are now used to describe the success and excitement around Kenya’s ICT industry, with Safaricom’s M-Pesa leading the way. But this progress did not arise accidentally; it took committed political, bureaucratic and corporate leadership, including the reform of trade, tax and financial rules. Yet new regulations may threaten the success of Kenyan ICT, especially for those most in need of its opportunities. This post explores how one of these new developments - the case of SIM registration - may be inadvertently diminishing the positive aims of mobile phones and financial inclusion (though others, like the drive to shut-off counterfeit phones deserveattention, too).