Towards the end of last month we reported about MTN and CBA’s MoKash garnering over 600,000 users in Uganda, an impressive feat given it was just 2 months old on the market. According to a report by Daily Monitor, the mobile micro-lending and saving platform has been adding an average of 15,000 customers per day, reaching 920,000 clients and has been able to dish out UGX 1 Billion in loans over the same period.
Mokash processes an average of 2,000 loans per day with the average loan being UGX 18,000 according to CBA’s Group MD, Isaac Awuondo. Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) partnered with MTN Uganda to dispense the micro-lending and savings product and thus tying it to only MTN Mobile Money users, whose credit history together with usage of other MTN products are used to determine one’s credit worthiness before a loan is approved.
Daily Monitor goes on to say that both MTN and CBA are cagey about mobilized savings and loans disbursed in the same period but papers from the financial institution show that, over 1B UGX loans were approved and savings are north of 2B UGX with speculation that they might soon hit 3B UGX.
MoKash’s uptake has been tremendous owing to the fact that it ditches the bad about traditional banks — that is bureaucracy, since it takes a few steps for one to register and get a loan approved as well as depositing savings. One need not visit a banking all for all these processes to take place. The centralised data provided by MTN fills void and it is one, against which one’s credit worthiness is computed.
MoKash’s equivalents in the greater East African region have been a success with one set to launch in Rwanda soon, after going live in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda under Mshwari, M-Pawa and MoKash branding respectively.
