The number of negatively listed mobile loan accounts jumped by over three million or 24 percent last year, highlighting the financial distress that has left Kenyans struggling to settle the soft loans.
Data by Metropol–one of the three licensed Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs) shows that the number of mobile loans accounts that were in arrears for more than 90 days jumped to 19.97 million from 16 million a year earlier and 18.9 million in 2020.
The jump highlights the hardships bedevilling borrowers who have over the years increasingly tapped mobile loans, which are easy to access and raise cash for daily bills amid the economic hardships.
The increase also signals that a majority of the accounts had tapped loans exceeding Sh1,000, thereby making them ineligible to benefit from the Central Bank of Kenya directive that barred the negative listing of loans worth less than Sh1,000.
“The highest increases are in mobile banking loans and overdrafts. This is mainly due to the increase in Fuliza loans linked to NCBA Bank,” Metropol says in the report.
The growth in black-listed accounts points to an increasingly difficult position for borrowers to get credit given that lenders turn away negatively-listed borrowers or give them loans at high-interest rates due to their high risk of defaulting.
Metropol is one of the three registered Credit Reference Bureaus alongside TransUnion and Creditinfo International.
The data further shows that the negatively listed mobile loans for last year were higher than the 18.9 million that were listed at the peak of the Coronavirus-economic fall-out that had eroded the ability of borrowers to repay loans.
