mPesa’s New Fuliza Quick Loan Scheme Gets 1 Million Users, Gives Out $10m Loans in Just 8 Days

The recently launched lending scheme by hugely popular mobile money platform, mPesa is quickly gaining traction as number of borrowers is already skyrocketing.

Called Fuliza, mPesa’s newly launched quick mobile loan scheme garnered over one million borrowers within the 8 days. This was revealed by mPesa owners/operators, Safaricom.

"We got a million (customers) by day eight and by day eight we had lent $10 million. Now we are probably at $15 million," @bobcollymore #Fuliza pic.twitter.com/LGd2JHpPrY

— ₿ank·a·ble (@mbuguanjihia) January 17, 2019

That is massive.

mPesa is a mobile money platform created by Kenyan telecom company, Safaricom. It originally allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services easily with a mobile device.

The service allows users deposit money into an account stored on their cell phones, send balances using PIN-secured SMS text messages to other users especially merchants and service providers, and to redeem deposits for regular money.

Launched way back in 2007, mPesa has quickly grown to become the biggest mobile money platform in the world. In Kenya, the service is used by 20 million people and has been the new growth opportunity for Safaricom as digital companies squeeze off voice and text revenues.

Since debuting in Kenya, mPesa has expanded to other countries like South Africa, Tanzania, and India.

Last year, mPesa announced that it would begin issuing quick loans to users on the platform. Called Fuliza, the loan scheme was expected to go live in January 2019. Safaricom partnered with domestic lenders such as KCB Group and CBA Group to introduce the service.

Fuliza officially launched in Kenya on January 7, 2019. Like many loan services like Paylater, Fuliza provides loans to users by observing individual credit limits.

“If you don’t have enough cash, you simply draw down from the overdraft and you keep drawing down until you have got to your overdraft limit, which is predetermined by an algorithm,” said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

Safaricom's Fuliza Overdraft Facility Issues KES 1.5 Billion Days After Launch https://t.co/l3DM66SELz

— Techweez (@techweez) January 17, 2019

The sporadic growth recorded soon after the launch has been startling.

“We got a million (customers) by day eight and by day eight we had lent $10 million. Now we are probably at $15 million,” said Safaricom.

This growth is the latest stride recorded by the bulging mobile money venture. Its previous growth has convinced other telecom companies to launch mobile money operations in various markets.