Over the past decade, Kenya has taken considerable steps towards deepening financial inclusion. This is reflected in the 2016 FinAccess Household Survey which shows that slightly more than three-quarters of Kenyans are now formally included by the financial system, which is a 50% increase over the past 10 years.
According to the report, the percentage of Kenyans relying on informal services providers decreased from 32.11% in 2006 to 7.2% in 2015. Thanks to technology, 18% of Kenyans now use new mobile banking services such as M-Shwari and M-Pesa, a scenario that has pushed the proportion of bank account users to 38%, up 10% from 2013, while traditional bank accounts have decreased.
Despite the significant progress seen towards enhancing financial inclusion, there is much less success in the use of investment products, such as shares, mutual funds and treasuries. The study showed that the use of investment products decreased to 10.6% in 2016 compared to 11.6% in 2013. Findings by the same survey also revealed that the number of Kenyans familiar with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) stood at only 38%. It seems that a lack of awareness could be why less than 30% of daily market transactions at the NSE are attributed to local individual investors.
But there is hope. Mobile phone platforms are being used to increase awareness and participation. Data shows that 26% of Kenya’s adult population own a smartphone or other smart devices. The uptake of mobile banking services has led to an increase in the banks’ penetration in the past 10 years, from 14% in 2006 to 38.4% in 2015. Investment managers, stockbrokers and insurance companies will also be buoyed by market studies that show that 71% of the population uses financial services provided by mobile financial service providers. This is a clear sign that mobile phones are the best way to encourage investments.
In light of this, the Kenyan government is launching the mobile-traded government security, M-Akiba. Kenyans with as little as $30 will be able to bid for the upcoming five-year income tax-free bond using their M-Pesa accounts. Investors will rejoice; M-Akiba returns are expected to be better than the current fixed deposit rates and most money market accounts. Stockbrokers have not been left behind either – at least three of them have recently launched mobile apps aimed at retail investors looking to buy shares, monitor their portfolio holdings and check account balances via their mobile phones.
But, the road ahead is not without obstacles. One is the low incomes among Kenyans. According to household survey, 75% of adults earn less than $150 per month. This may hinder most Kenyans from taking up financial products. A lack of trust among women towards formal financial institution is another major challenge. According to the latest quarterly report by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), women account for merely a third of the total number of investors. Low levels of education in the country are also an issue, with 60% of the population not completing a secondary level of education. With this in mind, it could be daunting when it comes to selling sophisticated financial products, such as derivatives and exchanged traded funds. Even among the educated, stakeholders will have to fight to shake off the persistent fascination with real estate.
At least Kenya is showing resolve to deal with the challenges. There is a big chance to make real changes to how people invest; all that is needed is a phone.

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The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has recently released their survey Women in Business and Management Gaining Momentum which notes that globally whilst women have increased their share of management jobs and as entrepreneurs over the last two decades, all data sources and analyses report a continuing dearth of women in top decision-making positions, as CEOs and board members. In coming up with their findings, they extend on the terminology used to describe the problems women face. We all know about ‘glass ceilings’ and many have heard of the ‘slippery ladder’ where women do not even get to the glass ceiling as they have fallen off the career ladder for whatever reason before they even get a chance to come up against the glass ceiling. The ILO now talks about ‘glass walls’ which they define as segregation by gender within management occupations.
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Whilst it may not be their original quote, it notes that “one of the reasons why it can be more difficult for women to be selected for top management jobs is their management experience is not sufficiently diverse. They have not been exposed to all types of company operations during their careers and thus have not gained sufficient experience in general management across several functional areas”.
So in addition to having glass above our heads, we now have glass on our sides as well. We allow ourselves to be placed in career silos. We need to stop doing this and realize that a well-rounded career is vital to get to the top. At least metaphorically, we are surrounded by glass, so we are still able to see where we are going. Whether we are able to use our other senses to navigate is open for debate. The survey revealed 34% of the companies responding indicated that retention of women was a problem. Is this surprising when women are placed into these silos, or rather allow themselves to be, as much as they are?
Interestingly, with regards to women in management positions, some African countries do quite well. Of the 124 countries surveyed globally, Ghana is placed 26th with 39% of all managers being women.  Botswana is 28th and Namibia 37th with 38.6% and 36% respectively. Interestingly, Botswana was one of the countries noted that achieved a 7% or more increase in the share of women in management between 2000 and 2012. That is very encouraging.
Like many surveys of this nature, the implementation of company policy measures on how to solve the problems features prominently. The results this time around though are quite interesting and go away from the norm. About 84% of companies indicate they have maternity leave as part of policy. Why are we even discussing this in this day and age? In contrast, parental leave, i.e., no gender connotation, is practised by 51% of the responders.
It is worth noting what the ILO suggests companies do in order to advance women: Explain and provide evidence on the business case for more women in management; network with other companies on good practices; provide good practice examples of measures and strategies to promote women in management; develop a strategy to promote more women in management; design an equal opportunity policy; network with women’s business associations; provide guidelines on gender sensitive human resource management systems; develop guides on measures and strategies to promote women in management; introduce a mentoring scheme; design a sexual harassment policy; and introduce a sponsorship scheme.
It is significant the first item is the need to explain and provide evidence on the business case. There are pockets of areas globally where the business case has been proven and accepted. In these areas they have moved onto the next step of implementation by those who have been convinced. Sadly, Africa to date is not one of those pockets.

Glass Ceilings,  Glass Walls?

Not surprised? Me neither; I’ve been thinking, talking and writing about this for years. But lately there seems to be something of a groundswell of recognition within organizations that good leaders are a critical component of success – and that we don’t have enough of them, especially when it comes to the leaders of the future.
A Right Management survey conducted in December of 2012 found that 32% of HR executives in the US, and 25% globally, put “lack of high-potential leaders in the organization” as their most pressing concern for 2013. Only 4% of US HR leaders said, “We have an ample leadership pipeline that will cover most of our needs.”
Why are employers feeling this need so strongly? I suspect it’s a function of the way business is changing. Even 20 or 30 years ago, if someone was a reasonably good manager of processes and relatively savvy politically, that person could go far in most organizations.
Now the leadership stakes are much higher. Everything runs flatter and faster: most organizations have fewer levels of management and fewer built-in hierarchical controls; there is much more information to make sense of on a daily basis; the rate of change in almost every industry has increased significantly (in some cases exponentially).
In addition, younger workers are less likely to stay in a company with bad leaders: they’re looking for (as Dan Pink points out in Drive) opportunities for mastery, autonomy and purpose in their work – and leaders who don’t even recognize those as legitimate needs, let alone work to fulfill them, are having a hard time attracting and keeping the best young talent.
In other words, if you can demonstrate to your organization that you have real leadership potential, there’s almost certainly a job with your name on it out there. Showing others that you’re a leader is very different, though, than simply saying, “I want to be a vice president.” (In fact, I’ve heard lots of senior people in organizations express frustration about junior folks who seem to expect to be promoted into executive positions within months of getting hired.)
So here are some things you can start doing right now to show the key people in your organization that you’re capable of leading:
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Build influence: Because most organizations are flatter and more matrixed than they used to be, leaders need to accomplish more through the power of persuasion than by relying solely on position power. For instance, if I work in marketing and I want to create a strong social media identity and community for one of our products, I may need to partner with someone in digital who doesn’t report to me to get that effort off the ground. In other words, I’ll need to influence him or her to support my goals. Being able to build that kind of influence, even in an entry-level job, is a great demonstration of your leadership potential.
A few years ago, I watched as the assistant of a client of ours influenced the staff at a resort where her boss was doing an off-site to solve a variety of logistical problems that arose – and that were the fault of the resort – all without alienating them or having the problems negatively impact the event.  She was recently promoted to coordinator, and I suspect there are more promotions in her future.
Think outside your own job: One of the frustrations I hear most often from senior people is that their employees focus too narrowly on their own needs and constraints. Junior employees will often complain about organizational decisions, for example, without understanding the enterprise-wide factors that may have led to those decisions. If you want to be seen as a leader, make it your business to understand the larger organization:
How does you business work? What are the factors, in your organization, that lead to growth, and what gets in the way? What other functions does your part of the business interact with most, and how do you support each other? Take a step back from your particular job and look at how everything fits together.
Then the conversations you have with your boss and other leaders are more likely to demonstrate your broader understanding of the business, and build their sense that you could succeed, and support the organization’s success, in a broader role.
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Learn from others. Great leaders don’t operate in a vacuum. If you come to work, do your job (even do it very well) and go home, having only minimal interactions with your colleagues, those in power are unlikely to see you as a potential leader. However, if you demonstrate interest in your colleagues’ opinions and ask them to tell you about things they’re interested in and know about, all kinds of good things will happen: 1) your colleagues will think you’re smart and interesting (it’s true – when others are interested in us, we tend to think better of them) and will be even more likely to share their wisdom and insight, 2) you’ll learn important and useful stuff that will help you grow as a professional, and 3) your boss and others will see you as hungry to learn and grow – vs. just hungry to get a promotion.
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Make things happen: During the recession, I watched as two middle managers in a client organization went down two very different paths.  One of them focused on how difficult things were, and used the tough economic times as a excuse for why he was unable to do many of the things his boss asked of him. “You don’t understand,” he’d say.  ”People are freaking out; it’s hard to get them motivated.” “We don’t have the resources; we can barely keep things going.” Etc. etc.
Meanwhile his colleague, a woman at the same level and with roughly the same budget and number of employees, pulled her group together and worked with them to figure out how to overcome the obstacles. She wasn’t able to do everything she was asked – I’m not sure anyone really knocked it out of the park in 2009 – but she was able to accomplish most of it with the support and creativity of her team. The next year she was promoted, and her I-can’t-do-it colleague was let go.
It was a pretty stark example: The ability to figure out how to work with others to get things done, especially when there are obstacles, is probably the key thing bosses and HR folks look for when deciding whether someone has greater leadership potential.
If you consistently show up in these ways, your boss and other decision-makers in your organization will take notice. And the next time you ask for a bigger job or a promotion, you’re much more likely to get the answer you want.

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Glass Ceilings, Glass Walls?

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