President Kibaki has asked employers to ask for a clearance certificate from The Higher Education Loans Board from job seekers before hiring them to have every beneficiary pay back their loans.

There is an aspect of collateral associated with all loans advanced from formal lenders like banks and micro finance institutions. Just like there are different requirements from various lenders, there are also different loan types that can be secured differently. The most popular loans in the Kenyan market are check off loans. Here, the key aspect of security is an agreement between the bank and the employer to deduct at source and remit to the lender on behalf of the employee. This is done until the loan is fully repaid. What happens when you are in self employment?

Banks still have their base lending rates at between 18.5% and 22.5% despite the Central Bank lowering the base lending rate (CBR) to 11% beginning of November.

Citibank has lowered its base lending rate to 15% down from 19%, a week after Central Bank lowered the CBR by 200 basis points to 11%. Inflation drop (4.14%) and a stable currency advised CBKs decision.

On a daily basis, I get customers who walk in and ask for loans. Naturally, I ask to look at the account statements as the bare minimum before determining viability of the application and advising whether to proceed, or forget. Different lenders check out for different things in statements presented. Again, different loan types call for different viewpoints in analysing bank statements. Just what do you need to know?