NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 2 — President William Ruto has said seven million Kenyans have been removed from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) blacklist.
Speaking on Sunday during a church service in Molo, Nakuru County, Ruto said he had kept his word to deepen financial inclusion.
“We have made that commitment come true. Seven million Kenyans who were blacklisted in CRB all of them have been removed,” Ruto said.
Ruto had promised to have at least four million Kenyans opted out of adverse CRB listing.
Addressing a joint press conference with CEOs of Safaricom, KCB and NCBA in September 2022, he stated that the action is crucial because many individuals have been shut out of formal borrowing.
“I am very happy that between four to five million Kenyans will be out of the CRB blacklist by the beginning of November,” he said at the time.
“This is very important; 4 million Kenyans have been excluded from any formal borrowing because of blacklisting. They have been left at the mercy of shylocks.”
He pushed for the recalibration of the CRB listing mechanism and asked the credit bureau to travel the road with “hustlers” to avoid disadvantaging those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
“Governor please explain to our people in the CRB space that we should change the model of listing so that we do not make an all-or-nothing process, and unfairly disadvantage borrowers,” he told then Central Bank boss Patrick Njoroge.
