Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK’s) DhowCSD platform has been named the winner of Central Banking’s Payments and Market Infrastructure Initiative Award.
CBK’s DhowCSD platform went live on July 31, 2023, and was officially launched by President William Ruto on September 11, 2023.
DhowCSD enables ordinary individual investors to open and operate CSD accounts from the comfort of their devices and without having to undertake a physical visit to the CBK.
Since the launch of DhowCSD in September, the number of investors has grown by 63 percent.
“This achievement marks the culmination of a significant journey that the CBK has undertaken in developing a new, agile, and transformative financial market infrastructure. The DhowCSD serves to facilitate the trading of Kenya Government securities locally and across the border while facilitating the integration of Kenya with international financial markets,” said CBK Governor Dr. Kamau Thugge.
In particular, the judges noted that when the CBK decided to develop a new central security depository (CSD), it was determined to make the system fully electronic and as accessible to as many Kenyans as possible.
The award recognizes the critical role the CBK-run DhowCSD platform has played in improving the financial market infrastructure in Kenya.
Investors can participate in government securities, including trading them on the secondary market, from anywhere in the world.
The process of trading securities is paperless, convenient, simple, efficient, and secure.
When DhowCSD started in 2023, it not only improved government securities operations for wholesale market counterparties and supported monetary policy operations, but also simplified access to the government bond market for all Kenyans – including its sizeable diaspora – via a mobile phone app or e-portal.
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