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{
    "id": 959764,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/959764/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13328,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Omboko Milemba",
        "slug": "jeremiah-omboko-milemba"
    },
    "content": "The threat that was mentioned here yesterday that reduction of the per centum interest on lending has made it difficult for the banks to give money to SMEs is a fallacy that is created by the banks themselves. I am a student of economics at my own level and I know that once the lending rates were reduced, we should have seen more money being given to SMEs. So, this is being done intentionally. Could we go back and look at the times of President Kibaki? He inherited one of the weakest economies in Kenya after retired President Moi. He deliberately decided that he was not going to borrow from the banks. The banks came to schools hawking loans and it worked magic! That is how most of the teachers and other people at the low cadres managed to borrow from banks. Originally, no teacher could have had a relationship with a bank but, courtesy of President Kibaki, who insisted that his Government was not going to do local borrowing in form of Treasury Bonds and Bills, the money was hawked in staff rooms. That is what we want to see. It is the Government which is encouraging banks not to give money to the SMEs because it is over-borrowing locally. The Government actually pays higher interest rates compared to what individuals would be charged. Therefore, I ask the Executive to put a capping, or totally stop, like President Kibaki did, from borrowing from the local market. This will make banks give loans to the SMEs. Banks are now threatening us that this is not working, which is against the law of demand and supply."
}