A lawmaker now wants the National Assembly to probe mobile money lenders claiming that some were exploitative and operating irregularly.Mathare MP Antony Oluoch in a petition yesterday said the House should commence probe into the mobile platforms with a view of closing down those that are operating outside the set regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning should investigate the operations of all mobile money lending platforms in the country with a view to stopping unregulated money lending and subjecting all non-compliant mobile lenders to applicable money lending regulations,\u201d reads the petition by the MP.He further wants the committee to recommend to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to audit the operations of all digital lending platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cFormulate regulations to govern digital money lending, including provisions for full disclosure of involved upfront charges and applicable interest rates as soon as practicable,\u201d he added.The MP claimed that a number of people have been lured into too much borrowing by the lenders through their easy and unregulated ways to access the loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe digital borrowing has become a social menace responsible for suicides, divorce, family breakup and increased listing of loan defaulters by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB),\u201d said Oluoch.\u201cThe lenders lured and trapped borrowers into unnecessary borrowing and a vicious cycle of expensive loans by raising loan limit upon repayment of the initial loan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The MP cited a recent report by Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) that indicates that more than 2.7 million Kenyans have been blacklisted for defaulting on their loans.A recent survey conducted by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that 40 percent of the mobile borrowers have multiple loans from at least six out of the 10 top lenders.<\/p>\n
Oluoch also accused the mobile lenders of exploitative interest rates, which he claimed were as high as 19 per cent way above the 13 percent recommended by the Central Bank of Kenya.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering mobile lenders are not recognized as financial institutions under regulation and supervision by CBK under the Banking Act, they operate bereft of regulation, including tax obligations,\u201d he said.He added, \u201cDue to lack of proper regulation, mobile money lenders infringe on clients\u2019 right to privacy by accessing customers\u2019 contacts to call friends and family about the borrowers\u2019 debt status.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lawmaker now wants the National Assembly to probe mobile money lenders claiming that some were exploitative and operating irregularly.Mathare MP Antony Oluoch in a petition yesterday said the House should commence probe into the mobile platforms with a view of closing down those that are operating outside the set regulations. \u201cThe Departmental Committee on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[2218,1155,2217,1021],"class_list":["post-4083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-antony-oluoch","tag-cbk","tag-central-bank-of-kenya","tag-national-assembly"],"yoast_head":"\n