Business Daily (Nairobi)

Kenya: Game of Hide And Seek As Banks Go On an 'Easy Loans' Spree

George Omondi

14 July 2008


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.

Be the first to Write a Comment!

Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.



Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email »


SELECT
SELECT
Ask Obama a Question