While the scale of informal finance in many developing countries has long been known to be extensive, data at the national level and particularly in Africa has been scarce. Moreover, financial sector development policy has firmly shifted its attention away from informal finance and towards...

Policy emphasis has recently shifted to ‘Finance for All’ given evidence that financial sector development (FSD) contributes to growth but that the primary effects on poverty do not arise from pro-poor provision. This paper uses data from Financial Access Surveys carried out in 2006 in Kenya...