NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 27 – M-Pesa overdraft facilities such as Fuliza, M-Shwari, and KCB M-Pesa remain the most popular digital lending platforms, a new survey has shown.
Out of 54 percent of Kenyans who are using digital lending platforms, 91 percent are taking loans using M-Pesa lending facilities, according to a study by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK).
”Out of those 54% of users, 91% of mobile loan users had used the three products affiliated with the M-PESA platform, that is, M-Shwari, Fuliza, and KCB M-PESA,” CAK wrote in the report.
“Only 38% of mobile loan users had ever used any other product besides these three,” CAK added.
“This showed that the M-PESA platform was dominantly used for the provision of digital loans.”
The report also disclosed that more men borrow from digital lending platforms as compared to women.
According to CAK, men are registered on multiple digital borrowing platforms as compared to their female counterparts.
“There was multiple borrowing among male than female borrowers with 9.71% of men having more than one account as compared to 7.74% of women,” CAK report read.
Similarly, the survey found that 77 percent of people who used mobile loans could not be able to repay them. This is similar to the high rate of penalty fees that digital borrowers face.
The study, which was conducted in 2021, was released during the Authority’s inaugural Competition and Consumer Protection Law Digest last Friday.
CAK’s Law Digest was developed in collaboration with the National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law).
It aims to bolster understanding of competition and consumer protection law in the country, expose stakeholders to the authority’s decision-making processes, and further develop jurisprudence.
