Over the past decade, financial inclusion, which can be broadly defined as increased access to financial services, has moved to the top of the international development agenda. The literature in international political economy has illuminated the role of international organisations, the G20 and bilateral donors in promoting financial inclusion. However, we know much less about how the global agenda of financial inclusion is translated to the local level. This paper documents and explains why central bankers in African countries have begun to promote financial inclusion and how they made it fit to local conditions, comparing the cases of Kenya and Nigeria. I argue that the transplantation of the financial inclusion agenda was facilitated by the ambiguity of the concept of financial inclusion. An ambiguous concept of financial inclusion rendered central bank promotion of financial inclusion more compatible with existing regulatory institutions and with ideas about the preferred public-private balances in the banking sector. In addition, concept ambiguity allowed central bankers to implement the financial inclusion agenda in a way that respected the existing power relationships in the banking sector. The paper also reflects on the implications of conceptual ambiguity for policy and for research on the translation of global policy frameworks to developing countries.