NCBA Group, Kenya’s third-biggest bank by assets, disbursed over KES 1 trillion ($7.7 billion) in digital loans in 2024, mainly through Fuliza and M-Shwari, underscoring how mobile credit has become a lifeline for households and small businesses as the economy slows and traditional lending dries up.
Fuliza, NCBA’s overdraft service embedded in the M-Pesa mobile money platform, accounted for most of the lending. Disbursements rose 14.8% to KES 906 billion ($7 billion), up from KES 789 billion ($6.6 billion) a year earlier. While M-Shwari, the mobile savings-and-loans product launched in 2012, saw a 3.5% drop in disbursements to KES 98 billion ($758.4 million), the volumes remain substantial.
Loop, NCBA’s digital banking app for younger and salaried users, doubled its disbursements to KES 2.5 billion ($19.3 million). The three platforms pushed the bank’s digital disbursements to KES 1.006 trillion—a record figure for a single year.
NCBA’s growing mobile loans book highlights how digital lending has quickly filled the gap left by traditional credit. Many commercial banks, including NCBA, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank, and Equity Group, have tightened lending to small businesses and low-income households as defaults rise and interest rates remain high.
NCBA’s digital lending success is attributed to the long-standing partnership with Safaricom, whose M-Pesa mobile money infrastructure forms the backbone of Fuliza and M-Shwari. Fuliza now has 33.4 million users, while M-Shwari serves 32 million—figures that overlap but also show the demand for short-term liquidity in an economy where millions live paycheque to paycheque.
Many use the products not as one-off loans but as part of their everyday cash flow, buying groceries, paying rent, or covering school fees.
Since its 2019 launch, Fuliza has disbursed KES 2.9 trillion ($22.4 billion), making it the largest single digital credit product by volume in Kenya. M-Shwari, launched in 2012, has issued KES 787 billion ($6.1 billion) over its lifetime. Loop, though smaller, has now disbursed KES 6.2 billion ($48 million) since 2017, rising steadily due to its focus on business clients and salaried professionals looking for flexible, unsecured credit.
Kenya remains NCBA’s largest digital lending market, but the bank is replicating its model across borders through telecom partnerships. Since 2017, it has disbursed over KES 130 billion ($1 billion) through MoKash—its joint product with MTN in Uganda, Rwanda, and Ivory Coast. In Tanzania, NCBA has lent over KES 20.2 ($157 million) via M-Pawa, a partnership with Vodacom launched in 2014.
The cross-border push could benefit NCBA from the anticipated growth in mobile money and digital banking as smartphone penetration rises and traditional banking infrastructure remains thin.
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