Kenya’s Central Bank (CBK) has announced the licensing of an additional 27 Digital Credit Providers (DCPs), bringing the total number of approved lenders to 153.
The announcement, made on Thursday, follows the licensing of 41 providers in June 2025.
CBK says it has received more than 700 applications since March 2022 and has worked closely with the applicants in reviewing their applications.
The regulator said in a statement that the licensing process focused on key areas such as business models, consumer protection, and the fitness and propriety of proposed shareholders, directors, and management teams.
‘’This is to ensure adherence to the relevant laws and, importantly, that the interests of customers are safeguarded. We acknowledge the efforts of the applicants and the support of other regulators and agencies in this process.’’
At the same time, CBK revealed that as at June 2025, licensed DCPs had granted 5.5 million loans valued at ($594 million) Ksh.76.8 billion. This was largely through digital platforms such as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes and mobile apps. Loan products include education loans, development loans, short-term personal loans, asset financing and business loans.
These lenders have, in recent years, however, come under attack for their predatory lending practices, engaging in data abuse, high interest rates, and aggressive debt collection practices. Last month, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) event requested the CBK to revoke the licences of two lenders it said ignored the rules and continued to abuse borrowers’ personal data.
These predatory behaviours by the digital lenders led to the establishment of the CBK’s licensing and oversight regulations enacted in 2022. These regulations address predatory lending and data abuse by enhancing transparency, improving corporate governance, and enforcing data protection to safeguard borrowers’ information and promote fair markets.
‘’The licensing and oversight of DCPs as indicated previously, was precipitated by concerns raised by the public about the predatory practices of the unregulated DCPs, and in particular, their high cost, unethical debt collection practices, and the abuse of personal information,’’ CBK said.
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