Alarm as easy digital loans yoke more Kenyans to debt

Banks and fintechs give loans to millions of Kenyans via mobile phones. FILE PHOTO |NMG

If truly what comes easy won’t last, as the old saying goes, then most Kenyans may be having second thoughts on the country’s rapidly rising access to financial services driven by mobile technology.

Although the proportion of Kenya’s population with access to formal financial services hit 83 percent in 2018, according to a survey part-conducted by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the National Treasury, many borrowers are fast reporting the downsides of quick and easily accessible money.

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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.