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KiaKia, one of Nigeria’s leading lending fintech companies, has launched the first lending investment mobile app in the country.
The Android-based mobile app is designed to enable any individual above 18 years of age with legitimate income to invest in the funding of secured personal and business loans originated, underwritten and booked by KiaKia across the country, and earn decent quarterly, bi-annual and yearly interest income.
KiaKia launched and began operations in 2016. Since launching, the company has facilitated, structured, originated and disbursed over N4.5 billion as personal and business loans to individuals and MSMEs across Nigeria. In 2019, it was the recipient of IFINCA award (Inclusive Finance Nigeria Conference and Awards) for the best peer-to-peer lending platform in Nigeria, having successfully facilitated lending and investment of aggregated private capital in billions of naira on behalf of individuals and corporates without recording a single fund loss in four years.
Prior to its P2P app launch, its peer-to-peer lending investment had been privately exclusive to high-income individuals in the last three years, Chiemeziem Anyadike, chief operating officer (COO), says. This has enabled these lenders to earn decent interest income on funds which KiaKia disburses to MSMEs as secured and unsecured loans across multiple sectors. The COO says that the company decided to open up the P2P channel to the public by creating an app that enables any individual with a legitimate source of funds/income to securely lend it out to carefully preselected and preapproved borrowers on the KiaKia platform with clearly indicated and predetermined interest rates. Interest rates range between 10 to 40 per cent depending on the package and tenure subscribed to.
The App also offers Halal option. Individuals can earn predetermined profit by funding businesses as a substitute for interest, head of non-interest services, Ismail Abiodun says. He adds that this option was created in response to growing demand from both businesses and funders who have preference for profit sharing rather than interest earnings.
Individuals can lend out a minimum of N50,000 and a maximum of N2.5m for a minimum of 6 months and maximum of 18months as against the previous supposed, financially discriminatory minimum threshold of N1,000,000. KiaKia does not operate a deposit, payment nor wallet system, the firm says.
Funds go directly to prequalified and pre-approved borrowers on the KiaKia platform. The P2P lending platform has provided access to critically needed working capital to players in Nigeria’s real sector in the face of limited access to credit, a funding gap the Central Bank governor puts at about $158 billion, Anyadike states.
Speaking further, the Co-founder/CEO stated that peer-to-peer lending and investment platform like KiaKia is optimised to deliver value.
“We offer the opportunity to put your money to work, by efficiently aggregating funds, carefully matching and securely disbursing them to credit-worthy borrowers, allowing lenders and funders to directly enjoy interests and profit-sharing,” Anyadike further says.
“Traditional financial institutions alone cannot meet the credit needs of economically active individuals and the real sector.”
A recent research carried out by the KPMG on behalf of the Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council estimated that N770bn would be required annually to fill the financing gap existing in Nigeria’s real sector.
According to Anyadike, it makes no financial sense keeping funds idly in the bank in the face of current economic realities when such could be applied on creating immense value in the economy.
The app is available in the Google Play Store. The company hopes to release the iOS version in the next two weeks. The link to the app is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiakia.p2p
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