Kenya Lending Rate Index Q2 2026: What Borrowing Actually Costs Across 25 Lenders

Inaugural edition. Published April 18, 2026. Data as of February 2026.

PesaMarket's Kenya Lending Rate Index aggregates verified annual lending rates across 25 Kenyan lenders into one comparable benchmark. This first edition tracks personal unsecured loans, SME working capital, KMRC-funded affordable mortgages, and digital mobile loans. We use the Central Bank of Kenya's published Commercial Banks Weighted Average Lending Rates (February 2026) as the primary source for every commercial bank, then add SACCO and DCP-licensed mobile lender rates from each lender's own published rate cards.

Every cell carries a confidence rating (A/B/C — see methodology) so readers and journalists can see exactly which numbers are tier-1 verified versus secondary-source.

This quarter's headline:

The cheapest sanctioned personal loan rate in Kenya in Q2 2026 is Citibank N.A at 10.21% (CBK February 2026 weighted average). The most expensive published rate among DCP-licensed mobile lenders is Fuliza at approximately 395% effective APR. The 385-percentage-point spread between these two products on the same nominal "loan" reflects the structural inefficiency of Kenyan consumer credit and the price most borrowers pay for speed.

Key findings — Q2 2026

1. The CBK February 2026 sector weighted average lending rate is 14.78%, down from 14.83% in January 2026 and 15.08% in September 2025. The compression follows the Monetary Policy Committee's Central Bank Rate cut from 9.00% to 8.75% on 10 February 2026.
2. Tier 1 banks have repriced under the new CBR + Premium (K) model. As of 28 February 2026, Equity, KCB, DTB and most peers price all variable-rate loans on CBR + customer-specific risk premium. Posted rates differ markedly from prior internal-reference-rate quotes.
3. The cheapest mortgage in Kenya is KCB Affordable Mortgage at 9.0% fixed, funded through the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company. Co-operative Bank's KMRC product runs 9.5% reducing balance. Sector average mortgage rate is 12.9% per CBK industry data.
4. Mobile lender APRs cluster between 90% and 395%. M-Shwari at 7.5%/30-day flat = 90% APR. KCB M-Pesa at 9.06%/30-day = ~108% APR. Fuliza's 1.083% daily fee annualises to ~395%. Tala's 0.3-0.6% daily rate runs 109.5-219% APR.
5. SACCOs remain the structural arbitrage for salaried borrowers. Stima DT SACCO and most peer DT-SACCOs charge 1% per month reducing balance (~12% APR), 3 percentage points below the cheapest commercial bank lending rate (Citibank 10.21%) only when restricted-membership SACCOs serve their employee base. For open-membership borrowers, the spread is 4-6 pp.

The Index — All 25 Lenders Ranked

Confidence ratings: A = CBK Feb 2026 weighted average (regulator-published). B = Lender's own published rate card or product page. C = Secondary source (calculator sites, news articles, comparison platforms).

All bank rates are CBK February 2026 weighted average lending rates. Mortgage rates marked KMRC are funded through the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company affordable housing programme. SACCO rates are from each SACCO's published loan products page. Mobile lender APR figures convert published per-period fees to annualised equivalent (simple annualisation) for comparability — actual rates depend on borrower risk profile and loan tenor.

Methodology — verified primary sources

We commit to publishing only rates we have verified against at least one primary source. For this inaugural edition we verified against:

Conversion rules:

• Bank rates use CBK's weighted average methodology (mix of new and existing loans, all maturity buckets, all customer segments).
• Mobile lender APRs use simple annualisation (period rate × periods/year) for comparability — the same methodology Safaricom and CBK use in their Fuliza disclosures. Compounding annualisation produces materially higher numbers (Fuliza compounded daily = ~5,000% APR) but doesn't reflect typical user behaviour.
• Mortgage rates marked KMRC are the published fixed rate; rates marked "typical" are the bank's standard mortgage product where the published number was inferable from the bank's product page or sector-average.

What we did NOT verify in this edition (deferred to Q3):

• SME-specific rate cards for the 18 commercial banks not yet contacted directly
• Mystery-shop-confirmed rates for Tier 2 banks
• Per-tier mobile lender APR (only headline DCP-licensed lenders verified)
• Restricted-membership SACCO rates beyond Stima and Unaitas (Mwalimu, Harambee, Tower, etc. need direct verification)

These gaps are flagged on each cell. The Q3 2026 edition (publication 18 July) will close the verification gap and add 5 additional lenders.

CBK February 2026 — Complete commercial bank ranking (all 38)

For maximum transparency, every CBK-supervised bank's weighted average lending rate as published in February 2026:

Sector overall average: 14.78% (February 2026). Source: Central Bank of Kenya, Commercial Banks Weighted Average Rates.

KMRC affordable mortgages — the cheapest credit segment in Kenya

The Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company funds long-term wholesale lending to participating banks and SACCOs at concessional rates, restricted to owner-occupied homes priced under KES 6 million (with monthly income up to KES 150,000). The result is the only segment where Kenyan retail credit is cheaper than the CBK weighted average.

Sources: KCB KMRC product page, Co-op Bank Good Homes, HapaKenya report on Stanbic 8.99%.

Mobile lenders — the headline-vs-actual gap

Mobile lender pricing is the most misleading category in Kenyan credit. Lenders quote per-period fees that look small ("just 7.5%!") but annualise to triple-digit APRs. The numbers below are simple annualisations of the published per-period fee, the same methodology Safaricom uses in its Fuliza disclosures.

All five are CBK-licensed Digital Credit Providers (DCPs) and operate within the legal framework. The pricing structure is legal. Whether it's defensible value to the borrower is a separate question — and a different report.

Important caveat: Mobile lenders rarely lend over 30-90 day periods. A real Tala loan held for 7 days carries far less absolute interest than the headline 219% APR suggests. We use APR for cross-product comparability, not as a prediction of total cost. For typical short-tenor borrowing patterns, refer to each lender's own loan calculator.

SACCOs — the structural arbitrage

SACCO data in this edition is verified from each SACCO's own published loan products page for two SACCOs (Stima, Unaitas). Other top-30 SACCO rates (Mwalimu, Harambee, Tower, Maisha Bora, etc.) are sourced from PesaMarket's SACCO Directory — internally verified but not yet independently re-verified for this index. Confidence rating: B.

For a deeper view of all 30 top SACCOs by membership see our SACCO Directory Kenya 2026.

What changed in early 2026 (context)

How to cite this report

Suggested citation (academic / journalism):

PesaMarket. (2026). Kenya Lending Rate Index Q2 2026: What Borrowing Actually Costs Across 25 Lenders. PesaMarket Research, April 2026. Available at: https://pesamarket.com/blog/kenya-lending-rate-index-2026-q2

Suggested attribution (news / opinion):

"...according to the Kenya Lending Rate Index published by PesaMarket, which compiles CBK-published bank lending rates and verified SACCO and mobile lender published rate cards."

Journalists, researchers, and analysts may reproduce any single table or paragraph from this report with attribution to PesaMarket and a link back to this URL. Bulk reproduction (more than 3 tables or 500 words) requires our permission via email.

Verification log & limitations

• All bank weighted-average rates are CBK February 2026 published data. They are sector-published, regulator-supervised, and not subject to dispute. They reflect the average across all loan products and customer segments at each bank — your individual rate may differ based on risk profile.
• All KMRC mortgage rates verified against the lender's own published affordable mortgage product page on 18 April 2026. Promotional rates may change.
• Mobile lender APRs are simple annualisations of published per-period fees verified against the lender's own published terms. APR is not the only relevant metric for short-tenor mobile lending — see each lender's calculator for total cost on typical loan periods.
• SACCO rates for Stima and Unaitas verified against own published product pages. Other SACCO rates marked Confidence B (PesaMarket internal data, not re-verified for this edition).
• SME rates are estimated from each bank's standard rate card plus a typical 0.5-1.0 pp risk premium for SME lending. We did not directly verify SME rates with each bank for this edition. Q3 will include 6+ banks with confirmed SME rate cards.
• Mystery-shopping (real loan applications) was not part of this inaugural edition. Q3 will include mystery-shop verification for top 10 lenders.

Quarterly publication schedule

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About PesaMarket: PesaMarket is Kenya's loan and financial product comparison platform, aggregating published rates and verified borrower data across 60+ banks, SACCOs, and digital lenders. Editorial independence is enforced — we accept no payment from lenders for inclusion or ranking in this index.

Methodology contact: research@pesamarket.com — corrections welcomed and processed within 7 days.