Alternative lending in Kenya

Kenya’s alternative lending scene has grown rapidly since the mid-2010s. [iStockphoto] 

While developed regions such as Europe and the United States have been progressively transitioning from traditional banking to mobile payments, Kenyans have been focused on such solutions for years. Kenya, in fact, has the highest percentage of mobile money users in the world, which is brought home by the fact that Kenya adopted USSD based mobile payments in 2007.

Before the advent of mobile money, just one out of every three Kenyans had access to financial services. The rest relied only on cash transactions. This was a problem that mobile network operators sought to address, and it became a great opportunity for them to positively change the way Africans manage their money.