Loisa Mwangi was glad that after waiting for weeks in vain for her savings and credit co-operative society to approve her loan request of Sh50,000, a commercial bank finally agreed to process the amount within 24 hours.

"The credit manager asked me to bring pay slips for the last three consecutive months and a letter from my employer as a sign of commitment to repay the full sum in six months," she recalled.

After 24 hours, she visited her ATM and as promised, the money was there; only that it was less by Sh2,630 direct charge of which Sh130 was a premium on insurance cover on the loan. She does not remember discussing any of these charges with the bank's credit department.

When the repayment period started, she also noticed that the bank was quietly adjusting the Sh8,995 monthly repayment instalments upwards until it reached Sh9,225 in her final month of the debt repayment.