Kenya’s economic decline is becoming increasingly visible in the financial lives of its people, with new data showing that financially healthy adults have collapsed from 39.4 per cent in 2016 to just 18.3 per cent in 2024.
This being a staggering drop that mirrors the country’s wider economic vulnerabilities. Despite more Kenyans accessing formal financial services, the 2024 FinAccess Survey reveals a population struggling to stay afloat in an economy where basic stability is becoming harder to achieve.
The findings, released on Thursday, December 4, as part of the Kenya National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2025 – 2028, paint a troubling portrait of households facing shrinking income capacity, rising living costs, and limited financial resilience. The report warns that while financial inclusion has expanded, it has not translated into improved well-being for most Kenyans.
Financial health, as defined in the strategy, refers to an individual’s ability to meet daily financial needs, absorb unexpected shocks, and invest in long-term goals-three pillars that have been severely weakened by the country’s sluggish economic environment. Using the Multidimensional Financial Health Index (MFHI), the survey assessed adults across nine indicators, with one needing to meet at least six to qualify as financially healthy.
Yet the 2024 data shows that even with a formal financial inclusion rate of 84.8 per cent, the lived reality for many Kenyans is one of economic strain. The sharp fall in financial health over eight years highlights the pressure of stagnating incomes, reduced savings, job insecurity, and a weakened investment climate.
Although the ability to manage day-to-day needs improved slightly between 2021 and 2024, this progress was overshadowed by a dramatic erosion in long-term financial security. The proportion of adults able to invest in livelihoods or future goals plunged from 39.5 per cent in 2021 to just 17.1 per cent in 2024 – a collapse that signals deep structural weaknesses in the economy.
With the decline now deemed critical, the NFIS 2025-2028 places financial health at the centre of national recovery efforts under Pillar 3, which focuses on strengthening consumer protection, market conduct, and financial literacy. The strategy acknowledges that true financial inclusion must go beyond account ownership to improving real-world outcomes for citizens.
Among the measures proposed is the formation of a Financial Health Working Group, tasked with refining the MFHI, enhancing measurement tools, and ensuring policies directly address the challenges facing households. The CBK also confirmed ongoing collaborations with global institutions such as the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to align Kenya’s financial health standards with international best practices.