Credit Barometer – By

Digital Lenders
Association of Kenya
[DLAK]
November 2021
About the Barometer
• The Credit Barometer reveals the country’s economic health by
highlighting how households and businesses are leveraging credit to
navigate economic hurdles to stay afloat.
• The first of its kind, the barometer shows how different Kenyans from
all walks of life view digital credit, how they use it and where they use it
as well as tracking their repayment patterns and trends.
• In quarterly surveys, we will continuously measure public perceptions
and appetite for credit against the dynamic economic situations by
looking at consumer preferences, priority areas in spending and how
fluctuation in prices of key commodities and costs of essential services
alter their choices.

2
Understanding the trends impacting
Kenyan households and small
businesses
Kenya’s EconomicHealthcheck

• In our first ever Credit Barometer, we present the findings

of research conducted with over 1000 digital lending
clients (October -November 2021) to provide consumer
economic data that will be released quarterly.
• We combine insights into nationwide consumer, business
and time trends to track and understand the trends
impacting Kenyan households and businesses.
• We hope the insights in this report help inform business
decisions and policies.
3
Research Guide: What are
the priorities for Kenyans?
• Credit Purpose & Source of Credit
• Payment Behaviour (Loans & Bills)
• Spending Habits
• Economic Situation and Future
Outlook
• Inflation Concerns

4
Credit Purpose & Source of Credit

5
Payment behaviour (I)

6
Payment behaviour (II)

7
Spending Habits

8
? Economic Situation & Future Outlook

9
$ Inflation Concerns (I)

10
$ Inflation Concerns (II)

11
Key Findings
Digital lending: first option for Kenyans

• Majority of Kenyans (82.4 percent) are willing to continue borrowing digital loans to invest in
businesses including stocks.
• 62 percent of these borrowers go to digital lenders as their first option, then to family and
friends.
• Digital loans are helping many businesses and households to settle their bills on time.
• Tough economic situations were the top most reason why most Kenyans would miss their loan
repayment deadline- especially when businesses are not performing well.
• When we look at the spending patterns with a credit of between Ksh 10,000-100,000, investing
in business is a top priority while Education, Food and savings comes second third and fourth
respectively.

12
Key Findings
Ray of Hope

• Digital loans are offering fresh hope to Kenyans, with many saying their income position
improved in the last six month.
• More than 62 percent of Kenyans expressed hope and were confident that life will be even
better in months to come.
• The confidence to live is much higher for people with access to credit despite a general rise in
cost of food, clothing, fuel, transport and utility bills. This means digital loans are helping them
weather tough economic times characterized by increased cost of living.
• Digital lending in Kenya has entered a phase of professionalisation and institutional
strengthening. This transformation can be broken down in three parts: the responsiveness to
market demands, diversification of products and the increasing and innovative use of new
technologies to provide financial services.

13
 Next Steps
• The Credit Barometer will continue to record the
public’s opinion in 2022 and introduce new polls
covering a wider range of financial statistics and
credit data analysis.
• This report will be released on a quarterly basis,
revealing the most recent credit sentiment data,
statistics and trends.
• If you have any questions about the report or need
access to the primary data, please contact us here.

14
Thank You.