Kenya Country Manager Watu Credit Limited The Kenyan asset acquisition market has been growing in recent years with the emergence of fintech-based firms providing quality hire purchase (HP) solutions. Traditionally, the options would revolve around disciplined savings mobilisation, like through banks, to acquire an asset. At the enterprise level, asset financing, including leasing, have been around for decades.
The missing link has been the availability of an accessible solution catering to the micro end of the market. Growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, that was primarily covered by a few HP entities that operated brick-and-mortar outlets. They bridged a gap in the market, allowing civil servants and teachers, among other cadres, to own assets and meet their physiological needs.
Through them, families acquired galvanised iron roofing sheets, electronic equipment, solar panels and even motorcycles, which were paid off through a check-off system with their employers. The later-day HP provider is now fashioned as an asset finance fintech solution provider, with several players playing in the market segment. Instructively, none of them is a digital lender, bank, microfinance bank or deposit-taking finance institution.
They are simply asset finance solution providers operating under the Hire Purchase Act and, unlike their forerunners, rely mainly on tech solutions for credit scoring and administration. They, therefore, enjoy better operating efficiencies and are actively bridging.
