Measuring Access to Financial Services in Kenya: Pretesting of Concepts

This paper discusses results of pre-testing of concepts to be investigated during the FinAccess 2009 survey. The survey examines the current usage and demand for financial services in Kenya.

The pretesting study investigated concepts such as financial literacy, usage of informal groups, well-being and happiness, perceptions of risk, livelihoods and usage of products. The study was based on focus group discussions. The paper discusses:

• Main sources of income in urban and rural areas;
• Juggling of livelihood options among the employed;
• Reasons for saving and borrowing;
• Saving through informal mechanisms and semi-formal and formal institutions;
• Use of insurance;
• Reasons for not using financial services and products;
• Events with direct and indirect impact on households, and coping mechanisms;
• Formation and functioning of informal groups;
• Factors causing financial stress;
• Factors influencing happiness and respectability;
• Concepts of responsibility and dependency;
• Understanding of financial terminology.

The paper states that FinAccess survey 2009 is expected to build on the results of the 2006 survey by allowing for comparisons over time, providing information to policy makers and private sector and providing data for academic research.