**Figure 1.**

*Toward digital financial transactions in Sierra Leone, 2016–2020. Source: UNCDP [21].*

### *New Topics in Emerging Markets*

productivity, and sped up transactions between businesses and suppliers [40, 41]. In addition, Kenya's main E-commerce platform—Jumia Kenya—partnered with the agricultural value-chain platform Twiga Foods to sell baskets of fruits and vegetables to consumers.

The Government of Kenya, businesses, and individuals turned to mobile financial services (DFS) to reduce costs and mitigate the spread of the virus. Government formed partnerships, and some international financial institutions (IFIs) transferred cash through the DFS. Kenya, like other countries, used digital platforms to advance financial inclusion. In a study focusing on 52 countries from emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), Kenya was ranked third in financial inclusion after Mongolia and China. Digital financial inclusion has come to overtake traditional bank financial inclusion in Kenya. According to the recent FinAccess data, the financial inclusion index rose to 83 percent in 2021 from 26 percent in 2006. There were 67.8 million registered mobile money accounts by May 2021. It is noted that 79 percent of adults have a mobile money account relative to 40 percent of adults with a bank account in 2021.

The use of digital technology can be observed both from volume and value for transactions in Kenya during the pandemic (see **Figure 2**). First, mobile penetration<sup>2</sup> went up to 129 percent in 2021 from 31 percent in 2007 [38]. The value of transactions saw a whopping 24, 440 percent, rising from \$0.2 billion in 2007 to \$49 billion (about \$150 per person in the US) in 2022. Mobile transactions, as a share of total transactions, rose about 56 percent to 80 percent during the pandemic in Kenya. Volume and value of digital transactions grew by about 82 percent and 39 percent, respectively, by March 2021. In addition, the mobile money mitigation measures outlined to shield the public against the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to this growth.

In a study using micro-level data in Kenya, and Uganda, Mugume, and Bulime [7] examine the factors that drive DFS to boost gender equality, enhance financial inclusion, and support growth [43]. They find that individuals with at least one registered

### **Figure 2.**

*Appreciable growth in mobile money during the pandemic. Source: CBK Supervision Department, [42].*
