NAIROBI, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to leverage on financial technology (fintech) products in order to boost capital markets, the country's market regulator said on Tuesday.
Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Director of Policy and Strategy Luke Ombara told an investors' forum in Nairobi that the capital markets are yet to fully play their role of domestic resource mobilization.
"Fintech is largely untapped but has a big potential for expanding the capital market's investor base," Ombara said.
"We are therefore promoting use of fintech products because they help to reduce barriers to accessing capital markets by lowering cost of investing," Ombara said during third round-table discussions on policy proposals for the 2018-2019 financial year.
Some of the fintech products include use of mobile payment platforms and artificial intelligence systems, Ombara said.
"Collectively fintech can deepen the capital markets by automating the process of buying and selling of securities instruments," he said.
CMA has developed a 10-year master plan that aims to enhance the market capitalization of the Nairobi Securities Exchange to reach 40 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2023, up from the current 23 billion dollars.
Ombara said the market regulator will adopt evidence-based approach to policy formulation.
