Commercial banks and micro-financiers wrote off 95,179 loans valued Sh8.8 billion owed by small and medium businesses last year as the number of defaulting accounts jumped five times, amid a tough economy and high interest rates that choked the firms.
Fresh data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that commercial banks and micro-finance banks (MFBs) wrote off Sh7.7 billion and Sh1.1 billion in loans to micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), respectively in 2024.
