Kenyan central bank says loans relief period ended on March 2

NAIROBI - Kenya's central bank said on Tuesday that March 2 marked the end of the period for allowing banks to restructure loans for borrowers hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Policymakers unveiled the initiative to help distressed borrowers in March last year at the onset of the coronavirus crisis, helping to partly cushion the economy reeling from the pandemic impact.

The amount of loans whose repayment terms were changed by lenders in the East African nation stood at 569.3 billion shillings ($5.19 billion) by the end of February, the regulator said in a statement.

That represented 19% of total loans, having dipped from 57% of total restructured loans at the depth of the crisis, it added.

Borrowers who still have outstanding restructured loans will have three months until June 3 to regularise them, the bank said.

($1=109.7500 Kenyan shillings)

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ((duncan.miriri@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +254 20 4991239; Reuters Messaging: duncan.miriri.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))