The Principal Secretary of the State Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development, Susan Mang'eni, has explained that Kenyans remain on the negative list in the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) even after settling their debts.
A CRB listing refers to a customer's credit status as recorded by a CRB in Kenya. These bureaus collect and maintain data on a customer’s borrowing and repayment behaviour from financial institutions, including banks, SACCOs, mobile lenders, and others.
Speaking during a leadership forum on Thursday, July 17, Mang’eni clarified that a CRB listing is not inherently negative, explaining that there are both negative and positive listings.
“Maybe just to clarify, CRB listing is not bad, it's just about information sharing. We have positive listings, and then we have negative listings. But then what has been happening is that the financial institutions tend to share negative, not positive,” Mang'eni explained.
According to the PS, once a borrower is negatively listed, the default status remains on their record for up to seven years, even if the debt has been fully repaid.
“Once you get negativity listed on CRB, you stay in that status for about seven years, in default status, even after you have paid before it is dropped off, you are still being seen as a defaulter after 7 years, then you can be cleaned up totally,” the PS continued.
The seven-year retention period is based on CRB regulations that are similar to global credit reporting standards.
Once negatively listed in CRB, Kenyans face severe consequences. Negatively listed individuals are often denied access to loans, mortgages, and other financial services.
For entrepreneurs, it can mean stalled business growth. For students, it can block education financing. And for families, it can delay home ownership.
According to Mang'eni, almost eight million Kenyans have belonged to the negative CRB listing, a situation she says follows the challenges many faced during the pandemic, drought, prolonged geopolitical tensions, among other factors.
However, the PS revealed that the Kenya Kwanza Government formed the Hustler Fund to caution Kenyans and grant them cheap loans despite their credit scores.
"Hustler Fund was to create that visibility, it was also to let the formal financial institutions to bring that practice, for them to know that not every Kenyan is bad," she explained.
