BIG Data Lending in Sub-Saharan Africa, Responsibility is key to avoid pain of the past
The experience of the over-indebtedness crisis amongst the poorest in Kosovo and other regions such Andhra Pradesh in India is still a clear memory to those who had to manage the human and financial fallout from these situations. This type of crisis is caused by 2 factors; excessive liquidity largely from donor funded institutions and secondly no credit bureau infrastructure, or usage of it. Are we about to witness the same cycle in sub-Saharan Africa with the highly funded race to provide loans through the trend of alternative/big data, at a time when MFIs are yet to be integrated into …
5 reasons why you should check your credit report frequently!
The year 2014 began on a high note for Kenya’s Credit Information Sharing (CIS) mechanism, with the publication of the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) Regulations 2013. The new Regulations opened a new chapter in the CIS mechanism by among others, allowing both commercial banks and microfinance banks (previously known as Deposit-Taking Microfinance Institutions – DTMs) to share information on their good and bad borrowers, away from the traditional approach of sharing information on defaulters only amongst commercial banks. Other provisions included the reduction of data retention rules from seven to five years, issuance of pre-llisting notices to borrowers before they …