Denis Opudo
Ubapesa is a Kenyan-based money lending platform. It was co-founded by Ronald Mutuku, George Wasike, Gordon Ochieng and another secret founder. The startup has been giving online short-term loans especially to SMEs and civil servants who are in urgent need of money.
Launched in March 2018, Ubapesa has recorded 22,000 mobile app downloads and 3,000 borrowers. According to the firms CEO, Mr Wasike, they decided to develop the app to help Kenyan depositors lend money on a reliable platform. He adds that their main role is to connect a lender to a borrower using the platform. The startup gets its commission once payments are made.
The app was placed on Google Playstore on 10th March 2018. It gives its clients loan that ranges from Sh500 to Sh7,000 payable after 10, 20 or 30 days. Wasike graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts from Kenyatta University. Mr Wasike worked with Safaricom, a mobile operator in Kenya as a business solutions architect. He then resigned and went to serve Airtel in a corporate product manager basis.
He says that the customers will be in apposition to build their credit history with the firm as they give the loans. Borrowers will be able to increase their ratings depending on how they settle their loans on time.
One has to use their mobile phone numbers specifically Safaricom while registering with the app. The firm then cross-checks the client’s credit scores with the Credit Reference Bureau helping the firm to tell the client’s creditworthiness. Wasike’s breakthrough came when he met IT graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Science, Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Mr Mutuku. At that time Mr Mutuku was employed at Craft Silicon. They then partnered and developed Gotta, App an airtime buying service. It works on all Kenyan mobile operators and it has been on the market for a period of two and half years.
Ubapesa charges a fee on each loan they issue out. This is meant to help them fund their operations and make their loans affordable at the same time. Lenders get a chance to choose whom they wish to lend their loans to and the platform links them to borrowers. Those who opt to settle their loans after 10 days are charged 8% interest, 20 days get an interest of 9% and 30 days will be required to pay an interest of 10%. According to Mr Mutuku, the piloting of the product was done on friends and relatives. He adds that the firm will bring in other services for their app to include payment portals for services and goods.
I recently downloaded the Ubapesa app and I can say it has a very bad user experience right from the registration where they ask for your KRA PIN. Surprisingly enough when you enter your KRA PIN the information is filled automatically which means our documents are not confidential with the government and they can be sold to any private company. The other problem is their credit rating system which is faulty. I was given a zero and from my rating I know I can be given a loan on any mobile loan platform. This app has a long way to go and considering their selling point is the P2P platform am afraid investors might lose their money in the long run.
Hello, am sorry for the experience but we contacted UbaPesa’s support team on this issue and they said they had some issues to sort, hopefully it is done. You can try again later.