Loans taken up by Namibians from microlenders rose to N$1.5 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2025, marking a 4.7% increase from the previous quarter and a 25.6% rise compared to the same period last year.
“The growth was driven by higher disbursements from term lenders and payday lenders. Term lenders accounted for 59% of the total disbursements and payday lenders contributed the remaining 41%,” the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) said.
The authority reported that the sector’s loan book value also expanded, reaching N$7.8 billion, reflecting a 2.8% quarterly increase and a 6.9% year-on-year rise.
Term lender loans, which make up 93% of the total loan book, grew by 2.6% quarter-on-quarter to N$7.2 billion.
“Collectively, Entrepo Finance, Letshego Micro Financial Services (Namibia), and Old Mutual Finance (Term) controlled 75.7% of the industry’s total loans, holding 28.4%, 28.4%, and 18.9% respectively,” Namfisa stated.
The total number of household borrowers involved in microlending transactions reached 241,369, up 34.0% from the same quarter in 2024 despite a 6.9% decline compared to the first quarter of 2025.
“Term borrowers continued to exceed payday borrowers at the end of the review period, even with the quarterly contraction in total household borrowing,” Namfisa added.
The number of new loans issued climbed to 179,519, representing a 1.8% quarterly increase and a 3.2% annual rise. Payday lenders dominated new loan issuance, accounting for 85.0%, while term lenders issued the remaining 15.0%.
“Higher loan disbursements and a greater number of new loans issued during the review period contributed to the growth in the loan book,” Namfisa noted.
