This archive report was first published on 21 October 2021.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced a stimulus package to support businesses and families affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As part of the package, the listing of loans less than Sh5 million at credit reference bureaus (CRBs) has been suspended for 12 months, ending September 2022.
The suspension aims to prevent borrowers from being blacklisted and to give them time to recover from the pandemic's economic impact.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya, the number of loan accounts negatively listed with CRBs had jumped 45 percent in the five months between August and January this year.
As of January, the number of loans accounts in arrears for more than 90 days stood at 14,035,718, up from 9,673,258 in August 2020.
The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans in the banking sector stood at 14 percent in June, down from 14.6 percent at the end of March.
President Kenyatta's order is the second suspension of CRB listings since the pandemic began, following a six-month suspension in April last year.
Workers who had taken unsecured loans to purchase goods and pay expenses have struggled to keep up with repayments due to retrenchments and pay cuts.
The suspension of negative listing on Kenya's three CRBs - Metropol, TransUnion, and Creditinfo International - is meant to cushion distressed borrowers from the effects of the pandemic.
