Why CRB Listing May Haunt You Despite Govt' Directive

President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing the nation from State House Nairobi on April 6, 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing the nation from State House Nairobi on April 6, 2020.
PSCU

President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive on CRB listings has holes that may lead to customers being denied loans due to previous listings on the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).

Sam Omukoko, the Group Managing Director of Metropol CRB clarified that there was no set mechanism preventing the banks from using data recorded before April 1 to assess one's creditworthiness.

Speaking on Citizen TV on Thursday, April 9, Omukoko stated that the CRB association was in consultation with the Central Bank (CBK) to chart out clear guidelines on how to navigate these possibilities.

"That is why now it requires proper interpretation and we the bureaus have approached the Central bank and said that we need a proper interpretation on how to implement the president's directive.

"We do not want a situation where customers go to the bank and are asking for credit and the banks are using the old CRB data to assess whether this customer should access credit or not," Omuoko stated.

He explained that if the directive is properly implemented, the Central Bank would guide the CRB association on how to treat credit that is issued during the crisis period and that which is issued after the president's directive has elapsed.

Omuoko further clarified that the President's directive had it that beginning April 1, the Bureaus were supposed to freeze listing, but not told to completely wipe out their entire credit history.

"What the President's directive means, is that starting April 1, the bureau is supposed to freeze customers accounts so that those who have a challenge in continuing repayment are not deemed as having defaulted.

“We cannot clear past credit history up to the end of March, that history will still be on the bureau. When customers go to borrow money, their credit histories will reflect what was there as of 31st of March," he stated.

He stated that if anyone was on the CRB list before April 1, they would still remain to be on the list after the pandemic is controlled and normalcy resumes.

"When the period that the president has directed has ended, we shall reinstate the previous history that the customer had so that there can be continuity in the reporting mechanism," he concluded.

On March 25, 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a raft of measures to cushion Kenyans on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, amongst them being the suspension of CRB listings effective April 1.

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