About the MSME Data Portal

Understanding Kenya’s MSME Credit Landscape Through Data

The MSME Data Portal is an initiative of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) designed to provide clear, accessible insights into Kenya’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Drawing on data from the Metropol Credit Reference Bureau, the platform offers a unique view of MSME financing patterns, credit performance, and participation across the country.

A key feature of the portal is its gender-disaggregated data, which highlights how women-owned and men-owned businesses access and use financial services. Through interactive dashboards and visual analytics, users can explore trends in credit, loan performance, and other indicators, supporting policymakers, financial institutions, and development partners to identify gaps, design targeted interventions, and promote inclusive growth.

By making high-quality MSME data openly available, the Kenya Bankers Association aims to strengthen evidence-based decision-making and contribute to a more resilient, equitable, and inclusive financial sector in Kenya.

Methodology at a glance

A compact map of how the dashboard turns CRB records into consistent MSME and gender insights.

1) How we classify MSMEs

Turnover where available; loan size as proxy otherwise. Remove large/corporate exposures.

2) How we classify gender

Female-Owned / Male-Owned / Jointly Owned / Unknown, using 51% ownership rule for businesses.

3) How we classify age

Age is derived from year of birth relative to each reporting month, then grouped into fixed adult age bands.

4) How we compute gender gap

Male share minus Female share (excludes Joint & Unknown), shown in percentage points.

5) How we track NPL metrics

Full portfolio in scope. NPL if 90+ days in arrears or Substandard/Doubtful/Loss.

Methodology

1. MSME Classification (Micro, Small, Medium)

Kenyan law defines MSMEs based on annual turnover. However, turnover data is not consistent. To ensure consistency and accuracy, the dashboard applies a structured classification process that uses turnover where available and loan size as a proxy where it is not.

1.1 MSME Thresholds

Based on the Micro and Small Enterprises Act (2012) and national MSME surveys, the turnover bands are:

Micro

Less than KES 500,000

Small

KES 500,000 to 5 million

Medium

KES 5 million to 100 million

Large / Corporate

Above KES 100 million

Large Enterprises /Corporates exposures are removed using conservative criteria:

Loans with annual turnover above KES 100 million, or
Loans issued with a value above KES 100 million

2. Gender Classification

All dashboards classify borrowers using four gender categories:

Female-Owned
Male-Owned
Jointly Owned
Unknown

Gender is assigned as follows:

Individual borrowers: The loan is attributed to the registered borrower’s gender.
Businesses: A business is classified as:
- Female-Owned if women own at least 51%
- Male-Owned if men own at least 51%
- Jointly Owned if neither reaches 51%
- Unknown if ownership or gender data is unavailable

Female Owned

Male Owned

Jointly Owned

Unknown

This classification is applied consistently across all gender-disaggregated dashboards.

3. Age Classification and Youth Lens

The dashboard also supports an age lens built from each borrower's year of birth. Age is not treated as a fixed current-age attribute. Instead, it is recalculated against the reporting period of each loan record so that historical views remain reproducible over time.

3.1 Age calculation approach

The source data provides a borrower year of birth.
The dashboard calculates age as: reporting year minus year of birth.
The reporting period is the record's own reporting month, which means a loan reported in an earlier year is bucketed using that earlier reporting year, not today's date.
This preserves historical consistency, so the same record stays in the same age context when analysing a past month.

3.2 Adult age bands used in the dashboard

Once age is calculated, records are grouped into fixed adult bands used consistently across charts, tooltips, exports, and story insights:

18-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

65+

Unknown

3.3 Interpretation of the youth lens

For youth-focused storytelling, the dashboard combines the 18-24 and 25-34 bands into a single youth segment. All older known age bands are grouped as the rest of the portfolio.

4. Gender Gap Indicator

The dashboard highlights the gender gap, shown as Male minus Female.

For each selected metric (such as loan value, number of loans, or number of borrowers):

Only Male-Owned and Female-Owned loans are included
Joint and Unknown categories are excluded
Shares are calculated for male-owned and female-owned portfolios
The gender gap is the difference between these two shares and is presented in percentage points

Male

−

Female

Gap

Percentage points

5. Non-Performing Loan (NPL) Metrics

NPL indicators on the Loan Performance pages reflect the full loan portfolio in scope, not only MSME-specific products.

A loan is classified as non-performing if:

It is 90 days or more in arrears, or
It falls under prudential risk categories: Substandard, Doubtful, or Loss

Loan performance is grouped into five categories: Normal, Watch, Substandard, Doubtful, and Loss. These classifications form the basis of all NPL ratios and trends shown in the dashboard.

Prudential Risk Classification (NPL Status)

Normal: 0–30 days past due

Watch: More than 30 up to 90 days past due

Substandard: More than 90 up to 180 days past due

Doubtful: More than 180 up to 360 days past due

Loss: More than 360 days past due

Definition of Key Terms

Loan StatusExpand

These terms describe the current state of a loan or credit facility:

Closed – No more admin processes running such as instalment demands or interest charges to account, and no further facilities can be offered on this account.
Dormant - no activity for 2 years. This applies for Overdraft/Current Accounts.
Write-Off – For facilities that don’t form part of the outstanding portfolio in the Balance Sheet but are still outstanding in the books of accounts.
Legal -with legal officer in court
Collection- with collection bureau
Active - For facilities that form part of the outstanding portfolio and are reported in the Balance Sheet.
Facility Rescheduled – For Rescheduled/Restructured Facilities
Settled – The facility has been cleared. This status can only be used for revolving facilities
Called Up - The facility has been called up. Once the client has paid up, the status should be updated to Closed, Settled, or otherwise Client Deceased.
Suspended – The facility has been put on hold for an indefinite period
Client Deceased
Deferred – This refers to facilities whose payments have been put on hold for a definite period or in moratorium (Grace Period)
Not Updated – This status is reserved for CRBs (if last record status is not CLOSED)
Disputed – Refers to a Record that the Client has disputed at the CRB. The account cannot be updated until the dispute is resolved

Prudential Risk Classification (NPL Status)Expand

Loan performance is assessed using standard prudential risk categories based on days past due:

Normal: 0–30 days past due
Watch: More than 30 up to 90 days past due
Substandard: More than 90 up to 180 days past due
Doubtful: More than 180 up to 360 days past due
Loss: More than 360 days past due

Loans classified as Substandard, Doubtful, or Loss are treated as Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the dashboard.

Client TypeExpand

Borrowers are grouped into two main categories:

Legal Clients: Fully registered businesses under the Business Registration Service (BRS).
Individuals: Individuals who have accessed loans for business purposes.

Product TypeExpand

Business lending in the dashboard is grouped into three main product categories:

Business Expansion Loans
Trade Finance
Business Working Capital

Our Partners

As of Dec 2025 • NPL analysis

The current selection focuses on MSMEs.

The total npl ratio across all reporting financial institutions as of Dec 2025 is 23.2%. This is the share of loans that are not being repaid as expected, so a lower figure indicates better performance.

Looking at loan quality by gender, female-owned businesses have an NPL ratio of 24.2%, while male-owned businesses have 25%. This suggests better repayment performance among female-owned businesses (lower NPL ratio).

In the Trade sector (excluding Unknown), about 26.0 out of every 100 loans are non-performing. This sector shows elevated credit risk and may warrant closer monitoring.

Note: A lower NPL ratio indicates better loan repayment performance. Values shown are NPL ratios (non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans).

NPL Ratio

23.2%

NPL Ratio

NPL Outstanding

KES 231.40B

Total NPL Amount

NPL Ratio by Gender

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Male-Owned	25.0%	5,890,218	403,329	6.8%
Female-Owned	24.2%	5,317,068	445,194	8.4%
Jointly-Owned	21.2%	42,452	4,877	11.5%
Unknown	17.6%	127,029	13,680	10.8%

By Institution Type

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Insurance	100.0%	2	2	100.0%
Digital Credit Provider	81.5%	403,597	100,081	24.8%
DFI	67.3%	7,444	4,025	54.1%
MFB	44.2%	453,435	152,053	33.5%
Trade	34.6%	36,158	2,728	7.5%
Non Deposit Taking Saccos	27.2%	12,988	4,281	33.0%
Deposit Taking Saccos	25.3%	340,949	46,461	13.6%
Banks	19.9%	10,122,191	557,449	5.5%

By Sector

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Unclassified	26.6%	11,034,439	834,343	7.6%
Trade	26.0%	164,075	15,667	9.5%
Agriculture	24.4%	40,935	4,777	11.7%
Real Estate	23.9%	4,155	469	11.3%
Building/Construction	22.3%	12,696	1,659	13.1%
Other	21.4%	2,924	271	9.3%
Energy/Water	20.7%	3,401	408	12.0%
Government	19.2%	13,645	1,244	9.1%
Tourism/ Restaurant/Hotels	16.5%	5,958	671	11.3%
Mining/Quarrying	15.9%	1,675	151	9.0%

NPL ratio by industry sector. Hover to see number of loans and NPL share by loans.

By Product Type

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Uncleared Effects	95.3%	181	172	95.0%
Other	91.8%	2,425	1,396	57.6%
Group Loans	45.1%	7,915	5,287	66.8%
Overdraft	35.6%	6,105,115	83,834	1.4%
Credit Card	32.5%	39,091	7,041	18.0%
Business Working Capital	32.5%	878,896	224,165	25.5%
Business Expansion Loan	27.0%	264,734	53,434	20.2%
Mobile Banking Loan	21.3%	3,398,995	411,667	12.1%
Personal Loan	17.7%	430,318	48,223	11.2%
Mortgage	16.8%	16,402	1,999	12.2%
Asset Finance Loan	15.8%	61,469	11,324	18.4%
Trade Finance Facility	8.4%	113,136	11,232	9.9%
Insurance Premium Financing	7.1%	58,090	7,306	12.6%

NPL ratio by loan product category. Hover to see loan counts for context.

By Client Type

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Individual	26.6%	11,031,359	833,456	7.6%
Legal Entity	20.1%	345,408	33,624	9.7%

As of Dec 2025, based on the number of loans, for Individuals, 7.6% of loans are non-performing. for Legal Entities, 9.7% of loans are non-performing.

By Collateral Status

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Collateralised	29.1%	707,973	130,124	18.4%
Uncollateralised	20.8%	10,668,794	736,956	6.9%

Collateralised = secured by pledged assets; Uncollateralised = no security. Hover to see loan counts.

By Loan Status

Category	Value	No. of loans	NPL loans	NPL share
Terms Extended	100.0%	5	5	100.0%
Called Up	99.9%	602	224	37.2%
Not Updated	99.6%	301	289	96.0%
Write-Off	99.2%	402,684	380,842	94.6%
Legal	98.6%	620	571	92.1%
Collection	92.9%	61,304	54,252	88.5%
Dormant	73.1%	25,775	17,490	67.9%
Client Deceased	37.7%	948	401	42.3%

NPL ratio by loan account status. Hover to see loan counts.

NPL Trend Analysis

Period	Total
2025-07	18.0%
2025-08	21.9%
2025-09	21.7%
2025-10	11.0%
2025-11	23.3%
2025-12	23.2%

Monthly trend of NPL ratio (NPL outstanding as a share of total outstanding). Tooltip includes NPL outstanding and total outstanding values for context. By default this view focuses on recent data (Jul 2025+); toggle Historical to view earlier years.

Top Counties by NPL Ratio

Counties:

▾

Ranks counties by NPL ratio (higher indicates a larger share of non-performing loans). Gender View breaks the ratio into gender contributions using NPL outstanding by gender.

Top counties data is not available for the current filter scope.

NPL Geography (Map)

This map shows the NPL ratio by county for the selected month and filters. Colors indicate low/mid/high NPL ratio using the KBA-approved palette.

Map data is not available for the current filter scope.