Bid to scrap Sh2,000 CRB certificate fees for first-time job seekers

CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By JOHN MUTUA
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Summary

• The Central Bank plans to make it compulsory for CRBs to issue the certificates free of charge to first-time public sector jobseekers.
• Currently, job applicants in the public sector must get clearance certificates from CRBs, anti-graft commission, Director of Criminal Investigations, KRA and Helb - all totalling to Sh6,000.

University graduates will from next year obtain credit reference bureaus (CRB) clearance certificates for free or pay reduced fees in a raft of changes aimed at minimising hurdles for jobseekers.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge, appearing before the Senate Committee on Labour, said recommendations of the ongoing review of the CRB regulations would be submitted to the Attorney-General by end of year.

Among the proposed changes, Dr Njoroge said, the CBK was considering making it compulsory for CRBs to issue the certificates free of charge to first-time public sector jobseekers. The document is issued at a Sh2,000 fee.

Currently, job applicants in the public sector must get clearance certificates from CRBs, anti-graft commission, Director of Criminal Investigations, Kenya Revenue Authority and the Higher Education Loans Board all totalling to Sh6,000.

“If you ask me this question, and then I do not answer it positively after three months then we have a problem. The idea is that in the next month or so we will look at all the comments then at the end of the year we will send them to the Attorney-General,” Dr Njoroge said on Tuesday.

Kenya is currently grappling with a high level of unemployed youths who are then faced with financial hurdles to be cleared for jobs in the public sector.

A report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics last year showed that nine out of every 10 unemployed Kenyans are 35 years and below, with the largest recorded in the age group of 20-24 years. The move comes as the number of people negatively listed by CRBs for loans as low as Sh1,000 remains high, according to a report by consultancy firm, Microsave.

The report released in September shows that in the last three years 2.7 million people out of a population of around 45 million, have been negatively listed with CRBs mainly for defaulting on short-term digital and mobile loans.