Central Bank of Kenya sets KSh 500,000 annual fee for licensed non-bank lenders, requires approval for rate changes, report says

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has issued new regulations, published by CBK Governor Kamau Thugge, that sharply raise the fees paid by non-deposit-taking credit providers and require them to get CBK approval before launching products or changing interest rates, Business Daily reported on 3 October 2026.

According to Business Daily, the annual fee is KSh 500,000 (about US$3,900) for licensed providers and KSh 250,000 (about US$1,900) for registered ones. There is also a KSh 100,000 application fee for both licensing and registration. A provider that has not paid its annual fee by 31 December faces a KSh 1 million penalty (about US$7,800), the paper said.

The paper said the fees compare with KSh 5,000 for an application and KSh 20,000 a year under the earlier Digital Credit Providers regulations.

The dollar figures are Fica News conversions at KSh 128.70 to the dollar, the rate for 2 October 2026 in market data published by the Rio Times.

Business Daily said firms must obtain CBK approval before introducing new credit products or changing interest rates. Customers must be given at least 30 days' notice before changes take effect, and platforms must let customers unsubscribe after repaying a loan.

The regulations follow changes to the Central Bank of Kenya Act made by the Business Laws (Amendment) Act, 2024, which were aimed at, among other things, clarifying and widening the scope of non-deposit-taking lenders' operations, according to Business Daily.

CBK published a draft for comment on 7 August 2025, with comments due by 5 September 2025, according to a summary of the draft by the law firm Dentons Hamilton Harrison & Mathews, published on the legal-information platform Afriwise. That summary records the same KSh 100,000 application fee and the KSh 500,000 and KSh 250,000 annual fees.

The draft required prior written approval before new products were introduced or features of existing products varied, according to the summary. Business Daily said the KSh 1 million late-payment fine was not in the draft.

The draft also allowed CBK to impose penalties of up to KSh 2 million, or three times the gain made or loss avoided, whichever is higher, for breaches, according to the summary.

The regulations are listed on Kenya Law as Legal Notice 191 of 2026, dated 29 September 2026.

The draft had told existing lenders to apply for a licence within six months of publication, according to the summary.