Our approach

How we think about lending money to people.

Most of what goes wrong in consumer credit is decided long before anybody falls behind. It is decided in how the price is presented, how affordability is judged, how much data is taken, and what happens on the first difficult day. Here is where we stand on each.

Six commitments.

These are the rules the company runs on, written down so they can be held against us.

  1. One total cost, before you agree

    Every offer shows the single total amount repayable in cedis, together with the schedule of repayments, on the screen where the decision is made. Not in a linked document, not in smaller type, and not assembled by the customer from a rate and a list of fees.

    If a cost is not on that screen, it does not exist. We do not introduce a charge after agreement that was not visible before it.

  2. Affordability decides, not appetite

    An assessment exists to answer one question: can this person repay this amount, on this schedule, without going without something they need? When the answer is no, the answer is no — including when the customer would very much like us to say yes.

    Lending somebody more than they can carry is not generosity and it is not good business. It is the beginning of a problem for both sides.

  3. Income as it actually is

    Our assessment works with irregular and seasonal earnings rather than treating them as a defect. Daily takings, market cycles, mobile money flow and salary all describe a real capacity to repay. A model that only recognises the last one is not neutral — it simply excludes most of the country.

  4. The least data that does the job

    We ask for what an assessment genuinely requires, we say what each item is for at the point we ask for it, and we keep it only as long as we have a lawful reason to.

    We do not read, collect or upload contacts, SMS messages, photographs or call logs, and nothing we run needs us to. Where a permission is not necessary for the service, we do not request it.

  5. Collections that stay between us

    If a repayment goes wrong, we contact the customer — privately, in a normal tone — and work out what is realistic. That is the method.

    We do not call relatives, employers or friends about somebody's debt. We do not publish, post or broadcast anything about a customer's account. We do not use shame as a recovery tool. Where a debt cannot be recovered, we would rather write it down honestly than extract it through pressure that damages a person's life.

  6. Difficulty handled early

    Incomes here are not flat, so our repayment schedules do not assume they are. A customer can tell us early that a month is going to be hard and rearrange a plan, without penalty for having said so.

    A customer who contacts us before a missed repayment is doing exactly the right thing, and the system rewards that rather than punishing it.

Plainly stated

What we do not do.

Not now, and not later

  • We do not read or upload your contacts, messages, photos or call logs.
  • We do not contact your family, your employer or your friends about money you owe.
  • We do not post about a customer's debt anywhere, to anyone.
  • We do not add a fee that was not on the screen when you agreed.
  • We do not sell your personal data to anybody.
  • We do not advertise a price we do not intend to honour.

None of this is unusually demanding. It is close to the minimum a person should expect from anybody they owe money to. We are writing it down because in this market it has not always been safe to assume.

If we ever fall short of any of these, we would like to hear about it directly. Write to {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} and it will reach a person.

Talk to us