Faulu overtakes Kenya Women to lead microlenders in Kenya
Faulu overtook Kenya Women to become the largest microfinance bank in Kenya commanding a market share of 31.2 percent as of December 2023. Central Bank’s banking sector supervision report shows Faulu’s total capital closed the year at Kes1.794 billion compared to Kes976 million for its main rival, Kenya Women.
Kenya Women now controls 29.1 percent of the market share, down from 34.4 percent in 2022, while SMEP nearly doubled its share to 8.8 percent up from 4.6 percent reported in the previous year. Rafiki at 8.2 percent and Caritas at 6.5 percent up from 5.1 percent complete the top five microlenders in the country.
The top five microlenders control a commanding 83.8 percent of the market share and manage over 205,000 loan accounts.
According to the CBK banking supervision report 2023, however, Kenya Women controls more active loan accounts at 150,903 than Faulu which has 21,740. On the number of active deposit accounts among the top two microlenders, Kenya Women controlled 209,649 while Faulu reported 36,581 accounts at the end of last year.
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In the period, SMEP advanced from the medium to the large peer group after its market share grew above 5 percent, largely powered by the acquisition and injection of capital by a strategic investor, the latest banking sector supervision report by CBK states.
In the medium microlenders category, Sumac increased its market share marginally to 4.3 percent. Other credit providers in this category are Branch (2.8 percent), U & I (2.6 percent), LOLC (1.9 percent), Muungano (1.8 percent), and Salaam (1.6 percent).
Overall, mobile-based lender Branch has the highest number of active deposit accounts at 601,799 according to the CBK report.
Last year, the number of licensed microfinance banks remained flat at 14 and they reported an 8.8 percent decline in total assets owing to onslaught from from commercial banks and other credit providers during the year, CBK said.
In a year marked by a high interest rate regime, microlenders saw total deposits dip by 5.7 percent to Kes43.9 billion from Kes46.5 billion in 2022, as customers transferred their funds to alternative attractive investments in the market.
