Digital lender, Okolea International Limited announced it has restructured loans for 40,000 of its customers to help cushion them against negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
This following numerous requests from customers for the digital lender to ease the loan repayment requirements as majority have been sent home on unpaid leave while business owners have had to close shop due to the pandemic.
“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,” Okolea chief executive Peter Muraya said.
This has seen loans, which were previously one month based, restructured with a new payment duration of up to 24 months.
“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,” Muraya said.
In addition, the firm has also removed from negative listing all customers with loans below Sh1,000, following Central Bank’s directive that firms offering financial services in the country to give customers in distress much-needed breaks.
Muraya urged CBK to engage digital lenders through their association, Digital Lenders of Kenya, in regards to the data submission of customers to CRBs.
“It’s my sentiment that not allowing lenders with good practices ability to submit data could deny good customers a chance to strengthen their credit profiles,” he said.
