Credit disbursed by regulated SACCOs to the country’s major economic sectors climbed 14.1 percent in the second quarter of 2026, recovering from a sharp first-quarter contraction but still falling short of the levels recorded at the end of last year, according to the latest Quarterly Statistical and Soundness Report published by the SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA).
The report, which covers the period to June 2026, shows total sectoral credit disbursed by Deposit-Taking (DT) and Non-Withdrawable Deposit-Taking (NWDT) SACCOs rose from Kshs 115.73 billion in March to Kshs 132.09 billion in June. The gain follows a 14.6 percent drop between December and March, when disbursements fell from Kshs 135.48 billion. Taken together, the two quarters leave total lending down roughly 2.5 percent from the December baseline, indicating the sector has not yet fully recovered the ground lost early in the year.
Among the eight sectors tracked by the regulator, lending to the finance, investments and insurance sector posted the strongest sustained growth, rising from Kshs 6.62 billion in December to Kshs 7.62 billion in June, a gain of 15.1 percent achieved without a March setback. Within that category, mortgage finance nearly doubled, climbing from Kshs 1.82 billion to Kshs 3.14 billion over the two quarters, even as microfinance and insurance lending both declined.
Credit to the trade sector also expanded steadily, up 14.4 percent to Kshs 19.03 billion in June, driven largely by wholesale and retail lending, which rose in each of the three reporting periods to reach Kshs 13.25 billion.
Education lending recorded a more modest net increase of 3.7 percent, ending the period at Kshs 27.83 billion after a dip in March, making it, alongside land and housing, one of the two largest sectors by value.
Housing, Agriculture and Manufacturing
Land and housing, the sector with the single largest share of SACCO credit, continued a steady decline across both quarters, falling 9.1 percent from Kshs 35.31 billion in December to Kshs 32.10 billion in June. Unlike most other sectors, housing credit showed no rebound in the second quarter, both the land and housing sub-components contracted in every period reviewed.
Agriculture was the most volatile sector in the report. Lending collapsed by roughly a third between December and March, from Kshs 28.46 billion to Kshs 18.70 billion, before rebounding by a similar margin to Kshs 25.04 billion in June. Even with the recovery, agricultural credit remains 12 percent below its December level, with both crop farming and animal production, the sector’s two largest sub-categories, still down on the year.
Manufacturing and servicing industries followed a similar pattern of a steep first-quarter fall and partial second-quarter recovery, ending 13.9 percent below December levels. The information, communication and technology sub-sector fared worst of any category in the entire report, plunging from Kshs 0.97 billion in December to just Kshs 0.27–0.31 billion in the first two quarters of 2026, a decline of roughly 68 percent.
Consumption and social services credit was broadly flat over the period, edging down 1.3 percent to Kshs 11.26 billion. Growth in consumer staples lending, which rose to Kshs 5.87 billion in June, offset a sharp fall in lending for social and communal expenses, which more than halved to Kshs 0.27 billion.
Broader Sector Health
The lending data accompanies SASRA’s wider soundness assessment of the industry, which shows the regulated SACCO sector’s total assets grew 12.6 percent year-on-year to Kshs 1.25 trillion by June, while gross loans rose 10.2 percent to Kshs 971.59 billion. Non-performing loans among deposit-taking SACCOs stood at 6.56 percent of gross loans in June, above the regulator’s 5 percent prudential ceiling, while capital adequacy and liquidity ratios for both DT and non-withdrawable SACCOs remained above minimum regulatory thresholds.
SASRA noted that the figures are drawn from periodic statutory returns submitted by SACCOs and may be revised following the audit of year-end financial statements.
Source: SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA), Quarterly Statistical and Soundness Report, Quarter Two – June 2026.
