Squeeze on two fronts hurting credit markets

The Kenyan banking industry is caught in a pincer movement. Conditions for lending are tighter than they were, slowing lending growth rates down to two per cent from growth rates of 20 per cent in April 2015. And industry profits are declining.

The result, for many businesses that rely on bank credit, has been the absence of critical finance during an extended hold on new business and slowed payments throughout the country’s election period.