File photo provided by Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) shows the stock trading hall of SSE in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua)
NAIROBI, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Kenya and China's capital market regulators are set to hold discussions on how financial technology (fintech) can help accelerate economic development in Kenya, a Kenyan official said.
Paul Muthaura, chief executive officer of Capital Market Authority (CMA), told Xinhua in Nairobi that Beijing has the largest and most vibrant technology driven financial sector in the world.
"Kenya is keen to exchange ideas with China from a regulatory perspective on how to create a conducive environment for the accelerated development of the fintech sector so that it becomes a catalyst of economic growth," Muthaura said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between CMA and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM).
Early this week, financial sectors regulators from China and Kenya held fruitful talks in Nairobi on cooperation in the fintech sector.
Muthaura said that in September, a team from CMA is expected to visit China to hold talks with their Chinese counterparts on partnering on the fintech sector.
He said that Kenya is keen to borrow lessons from China on how it can deepen and broaden its capital markets by leapfroging through the use of technology.
He revealed that China is a role model in the area of fintech because the Asian nation has used technology to democratize access to financial services and has also identified how wider sectors of the economy can be supported by technology.
He noted that China has an interesting regulatory model in the fintech space where there is industry self regulation with the participation of policy makers and regulatory agencies.
According to Muthaura, most of the fintech solutions in Kenya have components that fall under the regulators of the insurance, pension, banking sectors.
The capital market regulator is keen to deploy a broad based approach to the management of fintech solutions due to the presence of different sectoral regulators and there is currently not single voice in the fintech sector.