Kenya Financial Services: An Overview of the Different Types of Microfinance Institutions in Kenya

Barbara Asumadu, CEO at Musoni Microfinance Ltd, shares her assessment of the microfinance industry in Kenya and gives an overview of the sector.

“Microfinance in Kenya took off sometime in the late ‘90s, and it has evolved quite a bit since then. It is a wide stretch of different types of microfinance institutions or institutions lending to the bottom of the pyramid. These are regulated microfinance banks, savings and cooperative organizations (SACCOs), and credit only institutions. The microfinance banks have deposit mobilizing aspects of the business and the SACCOs do savings and some lending. Musoni is a credit only microfinance institution. Regulated microfinance banks are about 14 to 15 in total, and the depositing SACCOs are about 175 or so. There are several credit only institutions, and some of them do not feature under the umbrella body AMFI (Association for Microfinance Institutions). The SACCOs have their own umbrella organizations, while the microfinance banks, the credit only institutions, money lenders, etc., all come under the AMFI, which is a huge sector in Kenya. The digital only providers are also coming up strongly. They are working with algorithms, purely internet based, and are very little or no touch. From your mobile phone you can access different loans”, says Barbara Asumadu.

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