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{
"id": 1565993,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1565993/?format=api",
"text_counter": 43,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Hanna Cheptumo",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, following the digital lending challenges experience, the Funds Advisory Board, through the Cabinet Secretary, made a formal request to revert back to manual lending. His Excellency the President, through a communication from the Head of Public Service, reference SHGM/Vol.1, dated 17th September, 2024 granted the approval to revert back to manual lending through bankers' Realm system. Since the resumption of the lending, the Fund has disbursed Kshs457,400,000 to 1,180 groups, benefiting 12,538 members under the revised Constituency Women Enterprise Scheme (CWES), lending channel. See Annexure 2. It is at the back. As per the counties, there are 47 counties of Kenya. The groups, the number of members and the approved amount is tabulated there very clearly. Number three in answering your question, hon. Member, on increase in the onboarding of new chamas into the funds database since the inception of the digital system. The digital lending product was halted barely three months after rollout, and not much data was collated to facilitate onboarding growth analysis. Number four is on the number of groups that have dropped out of the fund due to the challenges they encountered during the onboarding into the new system and what the Ministry is doing to restore them. The Fund had lent to 136,499 groups since inception, but only 18,955 had borrowed under the digital loan product. For the three; the product was on offer. Presumably, the rest of 1,117,544 groups had opted out due to the limiting loan amounts and shorter repayment period. However, upon reversion to the manual lending model, all groups with good repayment history have been able to express their interest in borrowing, resulting to disbursement of Kshs457,400,000 to 1,180 groups in the last four months. On the measures that the Ministry is taking to address the concerns on the punitive decision of scrapping the credit scores, following the reversion to the manual lending model in December, 2024, the Fund has acknowledged the valid concerns raised by long-standing women groups regarding the loss of credit history and scores built over several years, particularly prior to the digitization phase. In response, the following strategic measures and policy interventions have been undertaken- One, restoration and integration of historical credit records. The Fund has integrated historical loan performance data from pre-digitization and digital records into the bankers' realm system. This aims to ensure that groups with strong repayment histories are recognized and rewarded through improved loan access, faster approvals and ability to reinstate previous loan limits. Two, reinstatement of loan graduation. The Fund has reinstated the tiered lending structure, allowing groups to progress based on their historical performance. Groups that had advanced to higher cycles before the digitization of their lending are being reassessed and reinstated to their previous cycles. The third intervention is targeted vetting and fast-tracking for legacy groups. Legacy groups with established track records are being fast-tracked through manual The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}