The advent of technology brought about a lot of development in many spheres of life such as education, communication and banking.
The most revolutionary is the ease and convenience of money transactions digitally.
The difficulty of borrowing money from banks created an avenue for digital money lenders to exploit the pains by giving out very attractive and juicy terms for lending money to desperate Kenyans.
The hard economic times coupled with the high cost of living have made many low-income earners seek refuge in digital lenders.
What baffles the borrowers is how the lenders seek their money back.
It was interesting watching Citizen TV run an episode on the tribulations the borrowers undergo.
The persistent threats in the unending phone calls to the borrowers and contacts in their phone books can be very irritating.
Some of the contacts in the borrower’s phone book are usually caught off guard when the lenders descend on them with severe warnings and all manner of intimidation.
In as much as defaulting is unethical and a wrong thing to do by the borrowers, there should be decent ways of retrieving their money back.
Statistics indicate there are 14 million Kenyans listed as defaulters with Credit Reference Bureau.
This seems not to deter more Kenyans from borrowing.
It's good to learn that plans are underway to regulate the digital lending platform.
This will go a long way in ensuring that there is order and decorum to both the borrower and the lender when transactions are undertaken.
There should be more organised and decent ways that borrowers can use to recover their loans.
Threats such as “plucking a defaulters kidney” or “chopping off their arms” would be a thing of the past.
Borrowers should always remember that there is nothing for free. Borrow what you can pay.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
