Only 16 in every 100 Kenyan MSMEs can access formal credit. The other 6.2 million are locked out by a collateral requirement they cannot meet.
Converting mobile money records into portable credit signals.
Digital badges for informal trades with no formal certification.
Job and payment logs captured in the tool operators already use.
Bulk purchasing built on existing savings associations.
Group accountability as a substitute for individual collateral.
Bridging the Financial Gap in MSME Financing in Kenya
Credit Access and Firm Performance in Murang'a County
AI Credit Risk Modeling for M-Pesa Users
Mobile Money and Trade Credit in the Informal Sector
Digital Finance and SME Performance in Nairobi County
Why Households Join Informal Financial Groups
MSME Lending Report 2025
The Global Informal Economy and the Green Transition
Cross-checked figures from CBK, KBA, and KNBS.
Six weeks in Nairobi's repair and light manufacturing sectors.
Working paper. Comments welcome, revisions acknowledged.
How to cite: Wanjiru, A., Otieno, D., & Kariuki, M. (2026). Collateral, Visibility, and Credit Access for Kenya's 7.4 Million MSMEs. The SILO Brief, Working Paper No. 1, v1.2.
Development economist. Mobile money and household finance in East Africa.
Ethnographic research on Nairobi's informal manufacturing.
Credit scoring and consumer finance. Quantitative analysis.
If this intersects with your work as a lender, regulator, or researcher, we would welcome a conversation. In particular we seek critical response to our framing, comparative cases from other markets, and partnerships to test the instruments above.
