Page №2 — Mobile Phones in Kenya

Kenya - African microcredit Sergey Sheikhetov, Head of Qualitative Country Research for Sub Saharan Africa at Kantar, on the specifics of the rapid development of microcredit in Africa, contributing to revolutionary economic and social changes in the region. Microcredit helps the poorest to escape poverty, and microcredit organizations are becoming major players in the financial market and are beginning to threaten the existence of traditional local banks. Interestingly, despite the similarity of microcredit business models in Russia and in African countries, the results of their implementation are very different. What are these differences? B8. The difference lies primarily in the approaches to microcredit by consumers themselves. In Russia, easy access to microcredits provokes certain groups of people to spend as much as possible, to buy goods and services that they do not really need, which ultimately only increases their poverty. In Africa, the majority of microcredits are invested in business (of course, also microscopic in scale), which allows bor Page №2 — Mobile Phones in Kenya rowers to create a source of income and, as a result, helps to reduce poverty, and simply gives many a unique chance to get out of poverty. Consider how the microcredit industry works, using the example of Kenya, an African country that in recent years has outstripped many not only developing, but even developed countries in terms of the development of innovative financial services. More than 10 microcredit providers are successfully operating in Kenya - both Kenyan (M-Shwari) and foreign (Tala). There is even one provider from Russia (AfrikaLoan). All Kenyan MFIs operate through mobile applications - and this is one of the main reasons for the explosive growth of the industry. The consumer just needs to download the application through the App Store, fill out an application, and, as the advertisement promises, in “half an hour” (in reality, of course, a little longer) he can get a loan to his mobile money account (all adults have a M-Pesa mobile account residents of Kenya). Thus, in order to obtain a microcredit, residents of Kenya just need to have a mobile phone, without bothering to go to the lender's office, fill out questionnaires and long negotiations. The vast majority of Kenyan borrowers are extremely sensitive about their debts 8C. 8B. A few words should be said here about the target audience of Kenyan, and almost all other African MFIs. For the most part, these are very poor people, whose earnings do not exceed the equivalent of US $ 2 per day. They do not have permanent jobs and live in rural areas. Of course, traditional banks are not interested in such clients. Despite extreme poverty, these people cannot be called beggars. According to African ideas, a beggar is a person who has completely lost faith in life, who has become degraded, "who has lost his face." Such people are also found among MFI clients, but providers are quite successful in weeding them out. The overwhelming majority of the poor are striving to get out of poverty. Kenya is a country of businessmen. If you ask a Kenyan what he does, the most common answer is "I am a businessman." Here are examples of typical African micro-businesses: B4! The peculiarity of such microscopic enterprises is that they are extremely vulnerable. The client did not pay on time, and a huge gap formed in the cash capital. And even if this gap is only $ 20, it must be filled immediately, otherwise the whole enterprise will end. And you can get $ 20 immediately only in an MFI. https://jiji.co.ke/mobile-phones/page2?listing_id=CcZ5UdkgcM471Sd6