East African Business Week (Kampala)
Geoffrey Kamali
14 April 2008
Nairobi — IT will soon be an obligation for commercial banks in Kenya to provide financial information containing the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) or fees charged on loans to enable their customers make informed decisions on borrowing.
The APR, say regulator Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) officials, will also contain additional costs associated with the various loan products offered by the commercial banks.
This measure, contained in the latest CBK report on bank charges and lending rates, is expected to help bring down the cost of borrowing, among other measures.
"With APR in the market, we expect banks to reduce their charges," Ms. Rose Detho, supervision director at CBK, told Reuters after releasing the survey to a news conference last week.
Already, she said, many countries worldwide use APR as a method to determine their own cost of credit.
Collaborating with the Kenya Bankers Association and Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD) in the scheme, CBK hopes to explore various modalities to introduce an all inclusive APR, a measure of the cost of credit in Kenya.
"Going forward, we will continue exploring cost effective ways of providing financial education to Kenyans along with other market players," the director explained.
The report highlights two different products and services with competitive price offerings, which include current and loan accounts, aimed at specific customer needs.
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