When you make fast, easy, short term loans available on the phone to anyone with a need for quick money, why is it a surprise when high levels of consumer debt are the result?

A recent survey by financial inclusion giants like FSD and CGAP discovers that low income Kenyans have not been helped by the plethora of easy access mobile loans introduced in the market in the name of financial inclusion and ‘access to finance’.

“The rise of the digital credit market has raised concerns about the risk of excessive borrowing and over-indebtedness among lower-income households. Digital loans are easy to obtain, short-term, carry a high interest rate and are available from numerous bank and non-banking institutions,” states the report

The same pattern of behaviour is emerging as did in India during the peak of the MFI small loan boom almost a decade or so ago. People are borrowing from one loan to pay off the other, and livelihoods are hurting while some face challenges putting food on the table. The year 2017 might have been economically challenging for Kenya, but the design of repayment plans are also a factor.

“Digital credit is not reaching everyone and remains ill-suited for most of the population, such as farmers and casual workers, whose livelihoods are characterized by irregular cash flows,” says the phone survey.

The attractiveness of the market opportunity however is such that new loans served through the mobile phone are still being launched every other month in Kenya. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that programmes meant to benefit the lower income population don’t end simply perpetuating the same problems seen before, albeit as profitably?