50 Years of Central Banking in Kenya

Documenting important milestones in the epic journey traversed by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) over the last 50 years, 50 Years of Central Banking in Kenya puts into perspective the evolution of central banking globally and within the East African region, and contemplates future prospects and challenges. The volume is timely, mainly because within the last 50 years the global financial landscape has shifted. Central bankers have expanded their mandates, beyond the singular focus on inflation, and consider economic growth as their other important objective.

Bank regulation has moved from Basel I, to Basel II, and some countries have fully migrated to Basel III while some are still at the cross-roads. 50 Years of Central Banking in Kenya captures the wide-ranging discussions on central banking, from a symposium to celebrate the 50 year anniversary on 13 September 2016 in Nairobi. The participants at the symposium included current and former central bank governors from Kenya and the East Africa region, high level officials from multilateral financial institutions, policy makers, executives of commercial banks in Kenya, private sector practitioners, civil society agents, executivesand researchers from think tanks based in Kenya and the Africa region, leading academics in banking and finance, and university students.

Beyond the symposium, the volume highlights the evolution of specific functions of CBK over the last 50 years (such as monetary policy, bank regulation, and payments system), as well as developments in Kenya’s financial system which strongly relate to the functionality of CBK, such as financial innovation, the evolution of financial markets, and non-bank financial institutions in Kenya.