This archive report was first published on 10 May 2021.
As of June 2020, Kenya's top financial institutions owed the government a staggering Ksh867 billion in outstanding loans, with the majority of these loans being held by state-controlled firms.
According to a report by the Treasury, tabled in the National Assembly on April 29, 2020, Equity Bank, the country's largest lender by deposit accounts, had Ksh493.47 million outstanding out of Ksh654.3 million loans it had received.
Co-operative Bank, the country's largest bank by assets, had loan arrears amounting to Ksh287.42 million out of Ksh417.86 million it was advanced.
The two top-tier lenders, together with three micro-financiers, owed the government nearly Ksh1.03 billion, with Kenya Women Finance Trust topping the list with an outstanding debt of Ksh100.56 million out of Ksh241.33 million it had taken out.
Outstanding loans to the loss-making Kenya Railways, under which the standard gauge railway (SGR) line falls, were captured at Ksh473.21 billion, or 54.58 percent of the Ksh867 billion total state loans to parastatals and other organisations as at June 2020.
