IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances under the PRIME Africa programme, co-financed by the European Union, facilitated a peer learning exchange for African Central Banks, focusing on the Bank of Uganda (BoU). As part of this initiative, BoU visited the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to learn from their remittance data collection systems. This event, jointly organized by the FFR and the CBK, provided an opportunity for BoU to gain practical insights and strengthen its data collection processes. Key stakeholders, including the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD Kenya), contributed to the knowledge-sharing effort to improve data-driven policy and private-sector strategies at the event.
The workshop, hosted by CBK, aimed to share best practices and support the enhancement of data collection to inform policy better and support private-sector business strategies.
During the three days, all participants had the opportunity to discuss critical areas such as Monthly data collection practices adopted by the central banks.
In addition, various surveys to capture qualitative insights, such as the following, were discussed:
- Diaspora Remittances Survey (CBK)
- Remittance Household Survey (CBK)
- Annual Personal Transfer Survey (BoU)
The participants also discussed opportunities to engaget with Remittance Service Providers, including Cooperative Bank and Upesi.
The CBK Deputy Governor, Dr Susan Koech, stressed the importance of remittances to the East African economies. Lydia Ndirangu, Deputy Director of the Statistics & Knowledge Management Research Department at the Central Bank of Kenya, recognised the workshop’s importance: “I am thankful to IFAD for supporting this peer-learning, which is very timely due to our ongoing data collection activities for the Remittance Household Survey.”
Milly Nalukwago Isingoma, Director of the Statistics Department at the Bank of Uganda, emphasised the exchange’s outcome: “ We are grateful to CBK and IFAD for this enriching workshop. We go home inspired by Kenyan practice and with good ideas on how to improve our current monthly data collection.”
The CBK and BOU teams acknowledged the opportunities that current practices can provide for additional data points for policymakers and market players. At the same time, both teams realised that only a more granular data collection and approach could provide a deeper understanding and better analysis of the remittance market.
