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Tag: Kenya’s Central Bank

  • UK fintech Unlimit expands to Kenya, obtains PSP licensing

    UK fintech Unlimit expands to Kenya, obtains PSP licensing

    The UK fintech Unlimit has received a license from the Central Bank of Kenya, two months after the company announced it had acquired a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    Trevor Goott, Unlimit’s Director for Africa and India, says, “I’m very happy to welcome Kenya as our second African country. We just found out that we were given a license in Nigeria, so this is a great follow-up.”

    Unlimit may expand to Tanzania, its third African location. The fintech’s website lists East Africa as a coverage area.

    Goott says they entered Kenya because their overseas merchants wanted local operations there. “Also, Kenya is a great place for us to grow our operations in the area because of its strategic location in East Africa,” he said.

     Kenya leads the African payment ecosystem after 15 years. Its mobile money revolution is famous worldwide. This new idea has grown Kenya’s economy and made it easier for numerous firms to grow.

    Kenya’s mobile payment infrastructure offers local and foreign firms many choices for setting up a company. Unlimit hopes to lead Africa’s payment revolution by expanding to Kenya.

    Read also: Four online Apps to save dollars in Nigeria

    Unlimit expands again in Africa

    Unlimit offers a better payment experience by combining widely recognised payment best practices, industry-leading security procedures, detailed merchant analytics, and an easy-to-use interface.

     “We have ambitious plans for Kenya and East Africa,” Unlimit CEO Kirill Evstratov adds. We’ve helped businesses expand into new markets and reach more clients for 14 years. We’re teaching Africa now. “We want to set the standards for excellence and innovation in the payments processing industry,” he stated. “We also want to enable global companies to make cross-border payments.”

    Unlimit’s multiple payment options will satisfy Kenyan enterprises.

    This achievement shows that Unlimit is committed to making Africa’s financial system better and giving businesses access to cutting-edge payment options.

    Goott also said that most international fintech companies in Africa use a local payment provider and use its technology and license, which gives them a competitive edge. Unlimit eliminates middlemen who gain licenses.

    “Using a middleman creates two problems: your end-to-end transaction processing now depends on a third party, and using the “middleman” service costs more,” says Goott.

    “Unlimint has an advantage over its competitors because it works directly with local payment method providers using its own license .” This way, we keep control of our technology, which improves uptime and transaction conversion rates, and we can offer our merchants the lowest possible running costs, which helps their businesses grow by making them more price-competitive and sensitive.

    Rebranding Unlimint to Unlimit

    The UK fintech Unlimint became Unlimit recently. The name will represent the company’s new positioning, unify its product portfolio, and underline its objective to abolish financial borders, enabling businesses to operate locally and internationally across Europe, the UK, LatAm, APAC, and Africa, according to a statement.

    Payment processing was Unlimit’s primary emphasis in 2009. However, throughout its 14 years of existence, the company has never stopped increasing its capabilities and product offerings, continually introducing new solutions to meet market demand.

     The company offers payment processing, banking as a service (BaaS), and an on-ramp fiat solution for crypto, DeFi, and GameFi on one of the world’s largest in-house payment infrastructures.

    The company’s new name is a strategic move to unite its products and boost its global brand. The company’s BaaS and Web 3 on- and off-ramp solutions will be renamed Unlimit BaaS and Unlimit Crypto, respectively. A new website and the slogan “borderless payments” will accompany it.

    The fintech industry is changing to meet the changing needs of its users. The new website gives a more complete picture of the company’s services by including an interactive map and descriptions of payment methods by area. This will help businesses all over the world decide how to grow.

  • Kenya’s Central Bank Offers 50% waiver to Mobile Borrowers

    Kenya’s Central Bank Offers 50% waiver to Mobile Borrowers

    The Central Bank of Kenya, In accordance with the credit repair agreement, intends to remove from the credit reference bureau lists around 4.2 million Kenyans who owe mobile digital lenders a total of 30 billion shillings in non-performing loans.

    If they pay the remaining 50% of the loan during the next six months, digital borrowers in the nation will receive a 50% waiver on their outstanding debt.

    Banks must now have a new repayment strategy in place for customers with non-performing accounts that have been reported to credit reporting agencies. At least KES 15 billion ($123 million) in debts owed by borrowers are being waived by digital lenders.

    According to the CBK, the majority of the borrowers who were touched by the Covid-19 outbreak were individuals and small enterprises, which worsened their incapacity to pay when they lost employment and businesses.

    “The adverse effects of the pandemic continue to linger for the covered borrowers. Accordingly, the Framework is expected to enable this segment of borrowers to access credit and other financial services as they rebuild their lives and livelihoods,” the CBK stated.

    The framework’s expiration date is May 31, 2023, and in the meantime, the lenders are required to get in touch with the borrowers and give them more information about the framework.

    Read also: Pezesha, EzyAgric Launch Digital Services For Agro Dealers In Uganda

    Kenya Central Bank Loan Relief

    The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has put in place a Credit Repair Framework

    for the purpose of encouraging mobile phone digital defaulters to make payments and restore their credit standing.

    The Credit Repair Framework was created at a time when digital lenders and the Kenyan government decided to create a new credit score system rather than blacklisting customers.

    Over 4 million Fuliza overdraft defaulters would be removed from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) and other blacklists starting in November of this year, Kenyan President William Ruto declared in September.

    Through the CBK, the Kenyan government is on a quest to purge the digital lending sector of any unsavoury characters.

    The nation’s Office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) announced in October that it would evaluate at least 40 digital lenders for consumer data breaches.

    Following that, only 10 of the 288 candidates who had submitted license applications to the CBK in March were granted licenses in September.

    For more than ten years, the nation of East Africa has been at the forefront of offering digital financial services. Before 2021, the number of digital lenders operating in the nation without the necessary permits and rules boosted unethical behaviour.

    The CBK then started mandating that all digital lenders apply for new licenses. Those who didn’t fulfil the application conditions couldn’t work in the sector.

    The Central Bank Of Nigeria Unveils USSD Code For eNaira Transactions

    Mobile Borrowing Trends

    Applications to offer digital borrowing services have increased in many African nations, including Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

    The telecom companies in South Africa have increased the number of mobile financial services solutions they provide to clients.

    In line with the trend, several South African lenders have recently introduced financing products for small enterprises, ranging from nano loans to larger financial infusions.

    Products for nano- and micro-loans have also been successful in places like Kenya and Tanzania.

    MTN Nigeria also had strong growth in its airtime loan product, Xtratime, which generated 93.8% of its fintech services revenue in the preceding six months. According to MTN’s website, its fintech division facilitated $1.1 billion in loans in 2021 and had 56.8 million mobile money users and 16.3 million insurance customers across 17 markets.