The latest poll by Infotrak in conjunction with Consumer Federation of Kenya revealed that out of 1,000 respondents, 60 per cent would consider taking a loan with exist commercial banks while the remaining 40 per wouldn’t. 58 per cent feel that commercial banks do not take into account consumer interests when reviewing loan interest rates and thus requested that the interest rates be made affordable.
The research by Infotrak Harris has also found that although the Monetary Policy Committee reduced the base lending rate from 18% to 16.5%, not all banks have lowered their lending rates to reflect this change and consumers still continue to pay high interest rates.
While speaking to the media, Angela Mbitho, CEO, Infotrack Harris said reasons that make people stop using banks is the rates that the banks charge with 39 per cent of those interviewed saying they stopped using the banks they used to use because of their interest rates. The research also revealed that a combination of high interest rates, long queues in the banking halls and poor customer service, were some of the reasons that make customers switch from bank to bank.
The poll was sponsored by Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK) and conducted by Infotrack Research and Consulting between 19th and 20th July, 2012. Some of the issued covered include:
- Why customers stop using banks they used in the past,
- What customers like about their current banks,
- What can be done to make customers happy
- Are consumer interest factored when interest rates are reviewed
Watch out for our subsequent posts that will have a detailed analysis of above issues.