Banks Dominate Mobile Lending With 93 Percent According To New CRB Report

A report by Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) for the seven year-long mobile lending in Kenya has revealed that Kenyan mobile loans market is dominated by borrowers aged between 31 and 50 years with the banking sector dominating the lenders list with 93 percent of the loans market.

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The report shows most borrowers, at 66 per cent, are averse to borrowing from more than one lender while another 24 per cent had borrowed from two lenders, leaving about 10 per cent who took up loans from more than two lenders.

Creditinfo chief executive Kamau Kunyiha said Kenyans appear to be risk-averse to borrowing from more than two lenders even though the market has more than 50 digital loan products available.

“Our data also shows that the banking sector dominates the mobile lending space by a staggering 93 per cent while the other seven per cent is lent out by digital mobile apps. We based this report on the data supplied to us by lenders in order to eliminate those buts and ifs and begin a trend of information that is backed strictly by data,” said Kunyiha.

Mobile lending has grown in Kenya which has seen the rise of close to 50 platforms in a largely unregulated sector which includes major financial players such as KCB, NCBA, Equity and Co-operative banks.

The data was collected between November 2018 and April 2019 and constitutes information supplied by lending institutions to credit reference bureaus (CRBs) under Central Bank of Kenya rules.