•The biggest reason for borrowing according to the survey is for household use and boosting capital in business.
•68 per cent of men respondents have used multiple platform whereas women are more loyal to a single brand. ReelAnalytics director Andrew Akeye, Zenka Finance Director Felipe Sanhueza and PwC Senior Associate-Regulatory and Finance, Christopher Ndegwa, during the release of the state of digital lending in Kenya Report 2021/HANDOUT An average of six out of ten Kenyans has borrowed money from a digital lending platform with men outnumbering women, a new survey shows.
Men are also not loyal to one lender and operate up to four different apps unlike women who are loyal to a single brand. Youth between the age of 30-34 years are the biggest borrowers.
According the State of Digital Lending in Kenya by consumer intelligence firm ReelAnalytics, fifty five percent of the surveyed Kenyans say they had acquired loans from these entities.
The money mostly goes into household use mainly bills and quick solutions to buying products such as cooking gas, fuel and personal use.
Digital loans also top business growth credit sources mainly for SMEs seeking to bolster their working capital, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic when banks cut down on individual and households loans.
At least 1,000 people were surveyed in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Nyeri, Meru, Eldoret, Kisumu and Embu in the study conducted between June 3 and 22 this year.
Nairobi leads with the highest number of borrowers followed by Mombasa, Nakuru, Meru, Kisumu, Nyeri,Eldoret then Embu.
Forty-nine per cent of borrowers are self employed, 13 % employed in the informal sector, formal sector (12%) and the unemployed (did not work for the past 12 months) at 11 per cent.
M-Shwari is the most popular influenced by its connection to the leading mobile service provider Safaricom) at 40 per cent, Tala (36 per cent), Fuliza (30 per cent) Branch (23 per cent) and KCB-Mpesa at 22 per cent.
Safaricom’s overdraft facility, Fuliza was ranked as the most subscribed and most used over the last three months followed by M-Shwari.It disbursed Sh1.2 billion daily in the six months to June this year with a total amount of Sh220.38 billion over the period.Other lenders are Zenka, Eazzy loan, Timiza, MCo-op Cash, Okolea and Kopa Cash.“Majority of Kenyans prefer digital lending platforms due to their convenience and easy access of loans compared to acquisition of loans from other credit service providers such as banks, saccos […]