Okolea Offers Relief to 40,000 Borrowers through Loan Restructuring and Waiver of Penalties

Okolea International Limited, one of Kenya’s leading digital lenders has come up with mitigation measures to cushion its customers during this COVID -19 pandemic period.

This has been occasioned by requests from customers who have either faced unpaid leave or business owners who have either closed or are struggling due to low business.

In addition, Okolea heeded the call by CBK for finance companies to give customers in distress some breaks.

In its effort to cushion borrowers during this time, Okolea has restructured loans for close to 40,000 customers. The company continues to dialogue with other customers facing distress to tailor-make a repayment path that is comfortable to them. This has seen loans that were previously one month based restructured with a new payment duration of up to 24 months.

“We have released a loan restructuring program which allows for customers in distress to have their loans staggered across several months thus enabling customers to continue servicing their loans in a timely manner,” said Mr. Muraya, Okolea International CEO.

The company has also heeded to the government directive to delist its customers who had defaulted loans below Ksh 1,000 from the CRB.

“As a company, we feel it’s a step in the right direction since most of these customers are either unemployed or students and this could have been a barrier for getting employment in some institutions. We do urge the Central Bank to engage Digital Lenders through their association, Digital Lenders of Kenya, in regards to the data submission of customers to CRBs.” Added Mr. Muraya noting that “not allowing lenders with good practices ability to submit data could deny good customers a chance to strengthen their credit profiles.”

Okolea has been at the forefront of pursuing consumer protection advocating for responsible lending. While some lenders have discontinued lending to their customers, Okolea continues to lend to new and existing qualifying customers. “We owe it to all good customers to continue providing them with finances for their businesses and home needs during this crisis.” Mr. Muraya explains.