The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced the licensing of new 25 Digital Credit Providers (DCPs).
This brings the number of licensed DCPs to 252 following the licensing of 32 DCPs announced in April 2026. CBK says it has received more than 800 applications since March 2022 and has worked closely with the applicants in reviewing their applications.
“The focus of the engagements with DCPs has been inter alia on business models, consumer protection and fitness and propriety of proposed shareholders, directors, and management,” said CBK in a statement. “This is to ensure adherence to the relevant laws and importantly that the interests of customers are safeguarded.”
CBK says it acknowledges the efforts of the applicants and the support of other regulators and agencies in this process. DCPs predominantly carry out their lending activities digitally including through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes.
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Credit products include education loans, development loans, short-term personal loans, asset-financing and business loans. As of May 2026, licensed DCPs had granted 8,374,102 million loans valued at Ksh150.56 billion.
Central Bank said other applicants are at different stages, largely awaiting the submission of requisite documentation. “We urge these applicants to submit the pending documentation expeditiously to enable completion of the review of their applications,” it adds.
The licensing and oversight of DCPs was precipitated by concerns raised by the public about the predatory practices of the unregulated DCPs, and in particular, their high cost, unethical debt collection practices, and the abuse of personal information.
Full list and contacts of the 25 licensed DCPs can be found here.
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