Banks will no longer enjoy discretion to raise interest on loans, the Supreme Court has ruled, effectively taming the appetite of lenders who raise the cost of credit every time the Central Bank of Kenya reviews is Base Lending Rate. In a ruling that will come as a relief for borrowers, who have had to endure arbitrary increases in loan rates, the Supreme Court said no bank can raise rates without the approval of the National Treasury. The Nairobi Business Monthly had in its March edition questioned why banks increase loan rates on old loans every time CBK reviews its…
Author: Mbugua Ng'ang'a
The Central Bank Rate (CBR), which banks use as a benchmark in the pricing of commercial loans, rose to a high of 12.50 per cent in December 2023, a sharp increase from the 8.75 per cent in December 2022.
Kenya’s national wealth, also known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a rate of 5.6 per cent even as world real GDP slowed down to 3.1 per cent, compared to 3.5 per cent in 2022, according to highlights from the 2024 Economic Survey Report, which was launched on Monday, May 20, in Nairobi. The growth was mostly attributed to the expansion of the agriculture sector, forestry and fishing, which grew by over 19 per cent. There was also an increase in formal sector jobs, which grew by 2.7 per cent to reach 363,200. According to the report, unveiled by…
The establishment of the small claims courts across the country has brought justice closer to the people and resulted in a significant increase in the number of resolved cases, President William Ruto said as he announced plans to increase collaborations between the Executive and the Judiciary in the fight against corruption. The small claims courts were established by the Small Claims Act, 2016, which was assented to on April 1, 2016. This law was later amended by the Small Claims Court (Amendment) Act, 2020 before being gazetted through notice No. 3791 of 2021, the year that they started operations. The…