Kenyan Consumers’ Finances are Improving – and They’re Cautiously Optimistic About Future Prospects
- TransUnion Kenya’s Consumer Pulse Study highlights Kenyan consumers’ optimism, resilience, and determination to meet their financial obligations
- Fraud remains a pressing concern for consumers, with more than seven in ten experiencing attempts to defraud them in Q2 2025
Information and insights company TransUnion Kenya has published its Q2 2025 Consumer Pulse Study* which shows that the finances of 59% of Kenyans were going as planned or better, with 84% expecting their income to increase in the next year. This is likely fuelling the optimism of 84% of Kenyans who say that they’re optimistic about their financial future.
Kenyans are taking charge of their financial futures, with 34% indicating that someone in their household started a new business, nearly one in five (18%) started a new job, and one fifth (20%) have had increases in their incomes in the past month. This confidence – and increase in income – has seen 40% of consumers paying down their debt more quickly, while nearly half (46%) have been able to increase their emergency savings – a five-percentage point increase from the same period last year.
While Kenyans express optimism about the future, their top financial concerns reflect ongoing macroeconomic pressures. Inflation leads the way, with 76% identifying it among their top three worries, followed closely by job security (60%) and housing affordability (55%). Together, these paint a picture of a population navigating rising costs, employment uncertainty, and challenges in securing stable living conditions. With these concerns in mind, 61% cut back on discretionary spending such as dining out, travel or entertainment in the preceding three months.
This is likely to be a trend that will continue, as more than half (55%) expect their discretionary spend to decrease in the coming three months, and 42% expected their spend on in-store or online retail to decrease too. Nearly half (49%) expected to spend less on large purchases in the next quarter.
In line with these constraints, 62% of Kenyans said that they’re expecting to be unable to pay at least one of their current loans or bills in full in the coming quarter – although this is slightly less than those who said the same thing a year ago (64%). Determined to meet their obligations, 48% said that they would take on temporary or gig work to service their debt, 34% said that they would use money from their savings, and 30% said that they would borrow money from a friend or family member.
“Kenya continues on its growth path, driven by resilient and value-driven consumers who are navigating a moderate inflation environment that’s inspiring cautious optimism in the country’s recovering economy,” said Morris Maina, CEO of TransUnion Kenya. “By delaying spend on big ticket items and finding ways to manage their debt effectively, consumers are signalling mature credit behaviour, which in turn is likely to be a driver for economic growth into the future.”
One of the most effective ways for consumers to manage their credit commitments effectively is to monitor their credit score and record, and nearly two thirds (65%) of respondents to the survey said that they monitor their credit at least monthly. More than half (55%) said that they do this to improve their credit scores, half (50%) said that they do so to monitor accuracy, and nearly one third (32%) said that they do so to protect themselves against fraud.
Kenyans focus on fraud detection and prevention
Data breaches (56%), stolen identity (53%) and credit card fraud (46%) were the cyber threats that most concerned surveyed Kenyan consumers. More than half of Kenyans (56%) were worried about becoming a victim of fake social media profiles (56%), with the next most pressing worries being that personal information would be exposed in data breaches (52%), that they would fall victim to viruses or malware (44%) or email phishing (44%).
In Q2 2025, 71% of respondents reported being targeted by fraud attempts through online platforms, emails, phone calls, or text messages, but they did not fall victim. An additional 10% said they were both targeted and scammed.
Medium-income consumers (KSH 300,000 to KSH 1.4 million per annum) were particularly affected, with 77% reporting fraud attempts — nearly ten percentage points higher than other income groups. The most common types of scams included vishing (fraudulent phone calls meant to trick you into revealing data ) at 46%, money/gift card scams (45%), phishing (fraudulent emails, websites, social posts, QR codes, etc. meant to steal data) at 40%, smishing (fraudulent text messages meant to trick you into revealing data) at 39% and third-party seller scams on legitimate retail websites (36%).
“Financial services institutions can help their consumers protect their credit profiles by adding solutions like identity proofing and risk-based authentication to their onboarding processes, without compromising consumer experiences during the application process,” Maina said. “With fraudsters evolving their strategies all the time, preventing and detecting fraud must be a holistic approach that empowers financial services providers, businesses and consumers to protect themselves.”
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*The survey of 433 Kenyan adults aged 18 or older was conducted 5-15 May 2025 in partnership with third-party research provider, Dynata.
