Kenya’s licensed digital credit providers nearly doubled their outstanding loans in 2025, while the number of lenders more than doubled, according to the Central Bank of Kenya.
Gross outstanding loans held by digital credit providers climbed 99.6% to Ksh 110.1 billion in December 2025, up from Ksh 55.2 billion a year earlier. The CBK reported the figures in its Bank Supervision Annual Report 2025, released on Sept. 22, 2026.
Licensed providers rose to 195 from 85 after the regulator licensed 110 lenders in three batches: 41 in June, 27 in September and 42 in December. Digital loan accounts rose 71% to 6.74 million from 3.96 million, the CBK said.
The average loan size rose 17.4% to Ksh 16,341 over the same period, up from Ksh 13,917, according to the CBK.
Most of the increase came in September, when the average jumped to Ksh 16,092 from Ksh 13,034 in August. In the same month, the number of accounts fell to 6.35 million from 6.66 million.
Over two years, loan accounts have nearly tripled from 2.36 million in December 2023, and the average loan size has risen 33% from Ksh 12,248.
The number of lenders grew faster than lending itself, rising 129% over the year. That put the average loan book per licensed provider at about Ksh 565 million at the end of 2025, down from about Ksh 649 million a year earlier, based on CBK figures.
The CBK figures do not show how lending is distributed among providers.
Lending has continued to grow in 2026. In July, the CBK said licensed providers had disbursed 8,374,102 loans worth Ksh 150.56 billion as of May 2026, which implies an average loan of about Ksh 18,000 at disbursement.
In the same update, the regulator licensed 25 more providers, bringing the total to 252. The May figure measures loans disbursed, while the December figure measures balances outstanding on a single date, so the two do not form one series.
The CBK has received more than 800 licence applications since its Digital Credit Providers Regulations took effect in March 2022. That means fewer than a third of applicants have been licensed so far.
Other applicants are at various stages, largely awaiting documentation, the regulator said. Its review covers each applicant’s business model, consumer protection measures, and the fitness and propriety of shareholders, directors and management.
“The growth of Kenya’s licensed digital lending sector, from 85 providers to 252, with digital loans crossing Ksh 150 billion, is proof that regulation and innovation can work together,” said Kevin Mutiso, chairman of the Digital Financial Services Association of Kenya.
The industry body’s members include Tala, M-KOPA, 4G Capital and Oye.
“The sector that once operated in the shadows is now one of the most closely supervised in East Africa. The next milestone is not more credit. It is better credit, products that genuinely improve the financial health of every Kenyan who borrows.”
Licensed providers offer short-term personal loans, business loans, asset financing, education loans and development loans through mobile apps and USSD, according to the CBK. The CBK does not break its loan book figures down by product. That breakdown would show how much of the growth is financing household consumption and how much is financing businesses and income-generating assets.
Mutiso said the average Kenyan is “borrowing for food and school fees.”
“These numbers should make us proud of how far digital lending has come, and uncomfortable with how far financial health still has to go,” he said. “The sector’s next chapter cannot be measured in disbursements alone.”
What to watch
There are three things to watch. The first is how quickly the CBK clears its remaining applications. The second is whether it publishes loan-book data by product type. The third is whether the average loan size keeps rising as the provider count grows beyond 252.