Kenya’s KCB Bank Earmarks Over USD 284 Mn For Mobile Loans As Relief For The COVID-19 Pandemic

KCB Bank, one of the best-known financial institutions in Kenya, has set aside a KES 30 Bn (USD 284,330,340) credit facility for individuals and businesses grappling with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bank says the funds will be available via its mobile lending platform, KCB M-PESA, a service operated in collaboration with Safaricom.

The lender will extend its borrowing limits and repayment periods for customers who meet the benchmarks. The revision, which is also good news for those who have existing loans, will be effective for the next 90 days.

Registered M-PESA subscribers will be able to borrow between KES 50 to KES 1 Mn (USD 9,477), dependending on the looks of their credit score.

The loan facilities offers 30-day, 90-day and 180-day loans with interest rates of between 2 and 6 percent.

Another COVID-19 relief measure, KCB has as well included loan contract renegotiation to allow repayment moratoriums. Repayments periods can now be extended to a year, while the bank will take care of the costs for loan restructuring.

“We stand with Kenyans and all our customers at this time as our country grapples with the pandemic. Our firm priority remains ensuring that employees, customers, business partners and the entire population remains safe and free from the virus,” said Joshua Oigara, KCB Group CEO.

This move comes as part of the many financial revisions happening in Kenya to enable its people fair better during the coronavirus pandemic.

These reliefs were advised by the Central Bank of Kenya in order to alleviate the economic effects of the outbreak, whose confirmed cases in Kenya are now up to 7.

To preserve the local economy, telecommunications operators and other commercial banks have removed transaction costs for customers.

The country has also urged for people to adopt mobile money now more than ever, and has waived all the resulting fees.

Image Courtesy: Reuters