- Trade lending by Saccos rises to Ksh19.03 billion
- Wholesale and retail loans jump 33% to Ksh13.25 billion
- Hospitality lending falls as foreign trade credit grows
Kenya’s small traders and wholesalers found more room to borrow from Saccos this year, with trade sector lending climbing sharply as wholesale and retail businesses pulled in the lion’s share of new credit.
According to SASRA’s sectoral lending breakdown, trade related credit disbursed by regulated Saccos reached Ksh19.03 billion in June 2026, up from Ksh15.46 billion in June 2025. That’s growth of roughly 23%, a pace that outstripped several other lending categories tracked in the same period.
Wholesale and retail dominate the numbers
Wholesale and retail trade accounted for the bulk of this growth. Loans to the sub-sector rose to Ksh13.25 billion in June 2026, up from Ksh9.95 billion a year earlier, an increase of around 33%. For a sub-sector built on everyday commerce, shopkeepers, stockists, market traders, that kind of jump suggests Saccos are becoming a more central source of working capital for Kenya’s SME economy.
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Transport lending grew too, though far more modestly. Credit to the sub-sector rose to Ksh3.71 billion in June 2026 from Ksh3.41 billion the previous year, an increase of under 9%. Given how tightly transport and trade are linked, moving goods to market, restocking shops, ferrying produce, the slower growth here is worth noting against the sharper rise in wholesale lending.
Hospitality lags, foreign trade climbs from a small base
Not every sub-sector moved in the same direction. Hospitality lending actually declined, falling to Ksh1.38 billion in June 2026 from Ksh1.52 billion a year earlier, a drop of roughly 9%. It’s a modest figure in absolute terms, but it stands out as one of the few trade related categories to shrink year on year.
Foreign trade, by contrast, posted the sharpest percentage growth of any sub-sector, rising to Ksh0.68 billion from Ksh0.59 billion, an increase of about 15%. The category remains small relative to wholesale and retail, but its consistent upward movement points to a slowly growing appetite among Sacco members for credit tied to cross border commerce.
By Benedict Aoya
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