Borrowers snub Ruto’s 50pc digital loan repayment offer
Dr Samuel Tiriongo, director of the Centre for Research on Financial Markets and Policy at the Kenya Bankers Association, speaks during the launch of the 2023 Kenya banking industry report in Nairobi in early June. He revealed on Thursday, August 24, that less than five percent of digital loans have been repaid despite a government offer to waive half of the debt for borrowers.
Nearly all borrowers have failed to repay mobile phone loans, despite being offered a 50 per cent haircut on the Sh30 billion in defaulted loans, undermining one of President William Ruto's pro-mobile phone campaigns after he took office last year.
Just two months after President Ruto was sworn in, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) ordered commercial and microfinance banks and mortgage finance companies to waive 50 per cent of Sh30 billion in loans that some 4.2 million Kenyans had defaulted on after borrowing through digital channels.
