Crispin Bokea, Central Bank of Kenya

Crispin Bokea is currently an Assistant Director at the Research Department, Central Bank of Kenya and heads the Financial Stability and Access functions. He also chairs and provides leadership to the financial access forum in Kenya, dubbed Finaccess, which comprises of key financial sector players and aims to develop and promote a better understanding of the financial access landscape in Kenya through research. Prior to this, Mr Bokea was the Head of Microfinance at the Banking Supervision Department, where he was responsible for developing the policy and regulatory framework for sector, including the prudential regulations for institutions that are now transforming into deposit-taking microfinance institutions under the Microfinance Act.

Prior to joining the Central Bank of Kenya in January 2004, Mr Bokea worked as the Head of Corporate Strategy and Research at Kenya Airways (2000-2004), where he was responsible for new business development, market research and fleet planning. He also worked as the Research Manager for the Africa Region office of the International Center for Economic Growth (1997-2000) where his key outputs included conducting the MSE Baseline Survey (1999) and a draft Sessional Paper to promote an enabling policy environment to support the growth and development of private sector enterprises in general and MSEs in particular for employment creation and poverty alleviation. He also has five years of experience as the Kenya Country analyst/author of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), providing independent analysis on the economic, political and business environment in Kenya.

Mr Bokea holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Nairobi and an M.A. in Banking and Finance from Milan, Italy. He has attended several training courses including a postgraduate program on Investment Appraisal & Management at Harvard University (June-August 1994), and the Boulder School of Microfinance, (July-August 2007). He was also a member of the CGAP Advisory Group on Branchless Banking (2007).