October 6th, 2025

In 2017, the Central Bank of Kenya constituted a technical working group to identify candidate proposals aimed at reforming and streamlining Kenya’s Credit Information Sharing mechanism. The objectives of the technical working group were to: (i) review and revise the data specification template that is used for the submission of credit information to the three licensed Credit Reference Bureaus; (ii) standardise the rules applied by the CRBs when validating the data submitted (iii) recommend an appropriate model for the validation and submission of credit information, and (iv) harmonise the interpretation the of the credit scores based on the credit information held by the Credit Reference Bureaus.

Over time, CIS Kenya, with the support of FSD Kenya, has made contributions towards the achievement of objectives set out by the technical working group. As part of the technical working group’s efforts to improve the efficiency and accuracy in the transmission of data to the Credit Reference Bureaus, CIS Kenya in 2019 took up the implementation of the third objective and developed a data validation and submission tool, popularly known as the CIS ValiData. In 2020, the Credit Reference Bureau Regulations were amended to provide for use of such a tool in the validation and submission of credit information.

The CIS ValiData is embedded with the industry-agreed data validation rules that check for both the format and the logic of the data before submission. The tool generates pre-submission error logs that point out specific error points to the Credit Information Provider (CIP) for correction before submission. If industry thresholds for data validation are not achieved, the tool will bar the submission of the entire file. This allows credit information providers to instantly validate their data before submission, ensuring that the data meets set industry data quality standards. The tool’s functionality enables the simultaneous submission of credit information to each of the licensed Credit Reference Bureaus, a regulatory requirement, through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This efficiency addresses previous challenges stemming from the CIPs’ failure to access the Credit Reference Bureaus portals at the same time when submitting data. Perhaps more imperatively, the tool will enable CIS Kenya to monitor the quality of credit information submitted through an analysis of the error logs submitted, facilitating proactive intervention to strengthen data governance and to improve compliance without necessarily relying on regulatory intervention.

After extensive reviews, enhancement and testing, the Central Bank of Kenya approved the rollout of the tool on 5^th August 2025. This was followed by a public launch on  11^th September 2025.

The approval and rollout of the CIS ValiData aligns with CIS Kenya’s mission of “facilitating the generation and use of accurate credit data for all players in the credit market”. As the tool is rolled out to more players, there will be a need to introduce additional functionalities and integration with emerging technologies and other categories of data providers. These opportunities include, for example, more customer-centric functionalities such as dispute resolution processes. As the Central Bank of Kenya embarks on the process of exploring the potential of open finance in Kenya, new models of sharing data will likely emerge. The role of the Credit Reference Bureaus in such an ecosystem is likely to evolve, with the ValiData facilitating smaller players in the credit market to participate in the CIS mechanism, including those that hold alternative forms of data.

From an inclusion perspective, there are two interrelated pathways through which the CIS ValiData can facilitate access to credit to currently underserved segments. First, smaller and informal credit providers that account for a significant amount of credit to women can now submit data through the Validata to all the three CRBs. Secondly, the designation of the ValiData as the only mechanism for submitting data to the CRBs, coupled with the functionality for simultaneous submission, will address the disparity in the data held by the CRBs especially from the credit providers that have been participating in the CIS mechanism on a voluntary basis. Such providers, referred to in Regulation as Third-Party Credit Information Providers, tend to submit data to only one CRB with the data remaining ‘hidden’ from the rest of the market.

The more data continues to be a vital input into making credit decisions and is a determinant of the price a borrower pays for a loan, the more the lack of a data trail results in exclusion from the credit markets or high interest rates. This is especially for individuals whose risk profile is not well-understood. Data infrastructure, including Credit Reference Bureaus, are thus an important lever to drive change in the market for affordable and appropriate credit. However, the effectiveness of such mechanisms is only as good as the data that they hold. The ValiData provides one mechanism of enhancing the credibility and effectiveness of the data held by Credit Reference Bureaus in Kenya.

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