Over 14 million Kenyans are now blacklisted on CRB. The millions of Kenyans have found their way to the Credit Reference Bureau over loan defaults.
Alarmingly, this is a sharp increase in the number of blacklisted individuals, and is a sign of the kind of financial struggles that Kenyans are going through amidst an economy that is on its knees.
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In the first quarter of 2020, the number of Kenyans listed on credit reference bureaus was 3.2 million. This was a jump from the 2.7 million Kenyans who were listed in the CRB in 2019. This represented a 12 per cent rise in non-performing loans in Kenya up from 9.5 per cent in the year 2017. Of the 2.7 million who were listed in the CRB in 2017, more than 400,000 people had been blacklisted for defaulting on loans of Sh. 200 and below. 16.6 per cent of digital borrowers took up one loan to pay another, ensnaring them in a vicious cycle.
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Current data now shows that the number of loan accounts in arrears for more than 90 days had jumped to 14,035,718 by January this year, up from 9,673,258 in August 2020.
According to data from the Central Bank of Kenya, the value of loans defaulted hit Sh. 423 billion or 14.1 per cent of the total Sh. 3 trillion loan book, representing a sharp rise from Sh. 351.73 billion that was in default by the end of March 2020. Already, the CBK has issued caution that defaults might rise even higher. “Credit risk remains elevated and that is expected given where the economy is. We have done some analyses and assuming that the economy remains flat and the benefits of reopening the economy do not come through, NPLs will rise to 16 or 17 percent of gross loans,” said CBK Governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge.
