About Patrick Njoroge
In a January 2026 conversation at Hall International Business School, former Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge discussed investment and economic challenges in Africa. Njoroge described youth unemployment as the continent's "biggest problem," stating that Africa adds 10 million young people to the workforce annually but creates only 3 million jobs. He criticized short-term investment approaches, saying private equity funds' 3-5 year horizons are insufficient and that "bigger risks are taxation changes and shallow capital markets." Njoroge also reflected on his tenure at the central bank, noting that he argued against interest rate caps imposed by parliament, which he said led to credit becoming unavailable to the broader economy and caused an economic downturn.
Njoroge emphasized the need for clear communication from economists to the public, stating that "it's important to communicate directly and simply to regular citizens." He also addressed foreign exchange risk, arguing it is not the primary concern for investors in Africa, and called for long-term investment rather than what he described as "people going in and out like bandits who grab something and run."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Patrick Njoroge's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Narrator0:00
The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Patrick Njoroge, has ruled out a return to the old and regulated regime of interest rates. Instead, he has asked banks to be innovative and come up with interesting new ways of increasing the uptake of credit to the masses and SMEs, even in the current regulated interest rate regime environment.
The regulator's comments today, at the just-concluded Africa Green Financing Conference, came hot on the heels of a repeated appeal for a relook at the interest rate law. That appeal was again repeated at a conference by the Kenya Bankers Association CEO, Habil Olaka.
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Habil Olaka0:41
Unfortunately, the capping of interest rates has significantly affected SMEs' ability to access finance from the banking sector. Consequently, this has also affected the growth of green finance in the country. To address this, the banking industry through KBA has established the Nuka Enterprise Development Programme. Within the program, a capacity-building training component has been devised with the main objective of equipping the micro, small, and medium-sized business owners with the knowledge of mitigating market risks, sharpening their business management skills, and strengthening their market reach.
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Patrick Njoroge1:29
We did see that there was an indication that small and medium-sized enterprises were having greater difficulties in accessing finance. That was from our perspective; that was our prior all along that this may happen. But I think the data we are getting confirms that, and indeed anecdotal data also that you yourself have probably come across points to this conclusion. So the area of SMEs is actually a key concern, and it's true we, the other things, banks need to do to strengthen their relationship, their lending to SMEs. And I did mention that during the presentation today, one of this is improving their pricing on risk, pricing of risk. SMEs themselves also need to be a bit more with it, if you may, which is they need to be presenting their financial positions in a much more intelligent fashion. So there's work to be done here.
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Interviewer2:39
Is this something that we are concerned about?
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Patrick Njoroge2:42
Absolutely. I think we did say that it is a sector that is key to our job creation looking forward and also for production. It is the SME sector. But I think the point isn't only on the SMEs; it's also on other things. Today we talk more about SMEs because that's really the direction that we are trying to get to drive the economy.
