Rejected by banks, Kenyan LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs turn to loan sharks
Mary Akinyi, an intersex woman from the city of Mombasa, ended up borrowing money from a loan shark after being turned down for bank credit – a situation faced by many Kenyan LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs, advocates say.
Akinyi said that despite having a solid business plan and credit score, she was told by a loan manager at the Kenya Women Finance Trust Bank in Nairobi she had been rejected because her gender identity did not match her ID card. “It was disheartening, I felt rejected, dejected and out of place because the reason for the rejection was flimsy,” said the 23-year-old, who identifies as female but whose identity card is marked male.
The Kenya Women Finance Trust bank declined to comment, citing client data privacy concerns. Many trans and intersex Kenyans end up turning to informal lenders charging high interest rates after being denied credit by formal financial institutions, said Gerald Hayo, communications officer at Nairobi-based rights group Rainbow Women of Kenya.
Akinyi is now paying the loan shark a monthly interest rate of 25% on the 100,000-shilling loan, nearly 10 percentage points more than the rate levied by most banks. “These loans obtained from informal lenders end up trapping many LGBTQ women in a cycle of debt, hindering their economic progress,” Hayo said.
