East Africa's largest economy is ramping up on several fronts to strengthen its financial services and open up investment.

After opening its first African office in Kenya last year, the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has announced a new training partnership with the Kenya Institute of Bankers (KIB).

CISI said it has seen a “significant uptake” for its training in Africa over the last 18 months, and this new partnership will focus on building skills and promoting integrity and ethical behaviour throughout Kenya’s banking sector.

As a CISI Accredited Training Partner, KIB will offer a number of training qualifications, including the fundamentals of credit risk management; combatting financial crime; managing cyber security; and risk in financial services.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with KIB. We have shared values and objectives - raising professional standards for the ultimate benefit of the individual, the employer and importantly, the customer,” Kevin Moore, CISI global business development director said. He added that the institutes would work together to develop knowledge and skills in critical areas, including initially cyber security and credit risk management.

Kenya is home to the now ubiquitous mobile payments and microfinance platform Mpesa, which has Vodafone and Vodacom among its biggest shareholders. By some estimates, the Mpesa service is so popular that it processes around half of Kenya’s GDP. Kenya is part way through a five-year plan to move from “frontier” to “emerging market” status by 2023. In service of the goal by regulators to open up the country's capital markets and investment potentional, the Capital Markets Authority issued 132 new licences up to June last year, including 26 to fund managers, 14 to investment banks, and 13 to investment advisors.