At the end of the financial year ending on June 30, 2018, the 13 microfinance institutions operating in Kenya declared -935.1 million shilling (-9.1 million US dollar) of net earnings before tax representing a 447% rise in its year on year loss compared with the -171.4 million recorded in 2017.  

In a recent report, Central Bank of Kenya explained that this is due to a 5% rise of credit interests that reached 2.1 billion Kenyan shillings at end June 2018 (up from 1.4 billion Kenyan shillings at end June 2017).   

Apart from credit interests, the 2.1 billion Kenyan shilling decrease in customers’ deposits also affected the institutions’ performances. From 40.6 billion Kenyan shillings at end June 2017, these deposits dropped to 38.5 billion Kenyan shillings at end June 2018.

Chamberline Moko