Kenyans borrowed Sh1.7 billion daily from M-Pesa backed lending platforms Fuliza, M-Pesa and Mshwari between April and September this year.
New data from Safaricom shows a combined Sh308.9 billion was borrowed from the three platforms in the period with the size of loans growing from Sh224.2 billion or Sh1.2 billion daily in the same period in 2020.
Fuliza remains the most popular platform with disbursements growing by 62.4 per cent to Sh242.6 billion in the period.
The average Fuliza loan taken sits at Sh375.80 while daily active Fuliza customers stand at 1.7 million persons.
Safaricom earned about Sh2.8 billion from lending on Fuliza with borrowers repaying an estimated 99 per cent of loans taken or an equivalent Sh240.2 billion.
The value of disbursements made on KCB M-Pesa and Mshwari has meanwhile fallen by 15.9 and 8.6 per cent respectively in the period to Sh22.9 billion and Sh43.4 billion respectively.
The pair also has fewer users rated by one-month active customers at 3.1 per cent and four million persons respectively.
Safaricom earned Sh300 million from KCB M-Pesa and a further Sh900 million from M-Shwari in the six months.
M-Shwari has the highest rate of defaults with the repayment to disbursal rate at 63.5 per cent compared to Fuliza’s 99 per cent and KCB M-Pesa’s 98.6 per cent.
The average loan size on KCB M-Pesa is Sh9,070 and Sh6,047 on M-Shwari.
