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For Kenya’s financing future, bank boardrooms must change, urgently
Kenya doesn’t lack entrepreneurs. It suffers from a lack of bankers and board leaders willing to back entrepreneurs who don’t come bearing land titles.
A recent news article revealed that just three of Kenya’s largest banks now hold over Sh1.75 trillion in land and property as collateral. This isn’t an isolated statistic; it’s a mirror reflecting the entrenched mindset of Kenya’s financial sector. What may appear to be sound risk management, in truth, exposes a deeper flaw: a credit system built on fear, not foresight.
For all the rhetoric about supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), catalysing industrialisation or embracing innovation, the reality is this, much of Kenya’s banking sector still operates like a white-collar pawn shop, deeply trapped in a rent-seeking model, where land, not ideas, determines who gets funded.
