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{
    "id": 1096087,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1096087/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyaribari Chache, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Richard Tong’i",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2611,
        "legal_name": "Richard Nyagaka Tongi",
        "slug": "richard-nyagaka-tongi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I was struggling to breathe. That is why I removed it temporarily, but because breathing in the hospital is worse than struggling here, I respect your guidance. As I was saying, there are people who have lost money and have lost confidence in small banks. We are a small and emerging country. We need to assure people who have capital that they can start small micro-finance institutions or a bank and attract customers. If we do not do that, we will rely on the multi-national banks which have already established themselves and can only do so much. We need banks coming up and, if possible, every county coming up with its own bank. Whenever they have a big transaction, they can merge. The banking industry allows banks to team up and serve a big customer who would need much more money than they can raise as an individual bank. If, by way of this Act, we encourage banks to come up in every part of Kenya, which will eventually grow up to be the Equity of days to come, that will be a good thing to do. Two things will happen. One, we will create employment by having those institutions because people will have to be employed to serve customers. Second, we will also spread financial literacy and accessibility to our people. They will also have the opportunity to be served by people who understand them and their language. This will enhance the confidence that Kenyans would need to trust the banks and deposit their money there. That way, we will be able to measure the wealth of the country and know for sure, for purposes of planning, how that can be converted and how we can then plan for those kinds of individuals or the economy that we have because what is in the bank is easily assessed and evaluated by the Central Bank of Kenya. There are many benefits which come with this amendment Bill. This Ksh1 million is not good enough, but it is a good step in the right direction. As the economy grows, we will amend this to cover a bigger portion, chunk and risk because that way, we will take care of the middle- income earners in the country. Kenya is slowly but surely getting into middle-income status which then means that there will be many Kenyans who will be multi-millionaires and would want to have better security and safety which this Kshs1 million cannot give. As I wind up, I can give an analysis of other institutions in the world where the law has been amended and because of that, they have opened up their banking industry to many more people. South Africa is one such example. They came up with the guarantee of deposits and because of that simple act, there are more bankable South Africans today than there were before that amendment. When customers deposit their money in the banks, they are sure that their money is in good hands. Ireland has done the same. They have also increased their deposits and guaranteed them by way of insurance, so that the customers do not lose anything whenever they put their money in their accounts. As we do this, we also need to take into account the premiums being paid to insurance companies. If we grow the number of bankable Kenyans, it follows that the insurance premiums will go down. When the premiums go down, the cost of transactions and the cost of banks using those premiums or insurance will go down too. We urge banks to pass on that benefit to the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}