Kenya passes new data protection law to bolster its tech sector

Having already cemented its position as one of the top three nations for FinTech in Africa, Kenya has passed a new law to attract more tech investments.

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the Finance Bill 2019, which will bring the country’s data protection regulations up to the same level as those in Europe.

“Kenya has joined the global community in terms of data protection standards,” Joe Mucheru, minister for information, technology and communication, told Reuters.

Just like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, the Finance Bill 2019 sets up clear restrictions and rules about how companies can store and use customer data.

Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are the three nations spearheading the FinTech investment space in Africa. The sector has grown a lot on the continent in the past decade. The growth has in no part been driven by a desire to meet a demand from Africa’s huge underbanked and underserved sector.

Looking at investment as a whole, FinTech Global’s data shows that the payments and remittances sector has attracted the biggest bulk of the FinTech investments in the region, having amassed 39.8% of all FinTech investments since 2014.

The marketplace lending and the WealthTech sector are the second and third FinTech industries when it comes to attracting money, having attracted 17.3% and 13.1% of the total investment in Africa since 2014.

Copyright © 2019 FinTech Global

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