Mr Eddie Ndichu. file PHOTO | NMG
Tech companies and banks are turning to mobile for micro lending, cashing in on the unbanked to push products and services.
Barclays Bank of Kenya this month launched its Timiza, offering loans between Sh100 and
Sh150,000. This comes barely a fortnight after tech firm Opera piloted its Okash mobile application that will offer loans of up to Sh500,000.
Sh150,000. This comes barely a fortnight after tech firm Opera piloted its Okash mobile application that will offer loans of up to Sh500,000.
“We
know that there are more than 20 million people in Kenya who use loans
actively every day and we want to give them a high-end product with an
exceptional user experience to make their life more comfortable when
applying for and making payments with loans,” said Eddie Ndichu, FinTech
manager for Opera.
OKash, together with an M-Pesa
account, enables users to access small loans for an interest as low as
one per cent per day and a loan term of a maximum of 14 days. The faster
a user pays off an active loan, the sooner they can request a new loan.
Mobile
lending is fast becoming a core financial service as firms, large and
small, seek to cash in on the use of the devices as a primary source of
access to banking services in the country.
The new
Barclays’ product offers loans at interest rates of 1.17 per cent per
month and one-off facilitation fee of 5 per cent with a repayment period
of 30 days.
In December, data from Google indicated
that in 2017, the majority of Kenyans spent the year browsing quick
mobile and low interest loans.
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