Startup Profile: Kiakia -- get real-time capital as a business owner or working class

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December 11, 2017
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2 min read

It's no longer news that many individuals and SMEs in Nigeria have limited access to finance, especially from commercial banks. Although this problem has inspired several credit programmes, the growing demand year-on-year is still yet to be satisfied.

To contribute to mitigating this challenge, Kiakia, an AI and machine learning powered alternative credit scoring, customer service, direct and a P2P lending platform has launched a virtual agent called "Mr K" to help working adults and SMEs access credit.

Kiakia website

According to the Co-founder, Olajide Abiola (who also doubles as the Chief Data Scientist), millions of naira in loans have been successfully granted to and repaid by hundreds of borrowers across 22 States in Nigeria. This comes with a loss/default/NPL ratio of below 2.3%, which is consistently maintained over a 12-month period, all thanks to Kiakia's algorithm.

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Mr K, one of the most robust financial services virtual assistant around (as Olajide calls it), will use an intuitive and interactive interface to engage users, thereby giving them a seamless experience. As innovative as Mr K is, it isn't an entirely new concept.

In 2015 and 2016 respectively, Aella Credit and Paylater launched to combat the same challenge as Kiakia. The difference is Kiakia has a core focus on the unbanked population in Nigerian. This, in addition to its interactive user experience facilitated by the recently deployed Mr K, is a competitive edge for Kiakia.

Its smooth user experience enhances usage and no other platform does this in Nigeria -- design for the unbanked. we are promising our existing and prospective users a new era of responsible access to capital. Access to capital that is geared at liberating them financially, helping small businesses differentiate and grow, rather than sinking them under the crushing weight of debt. Credible users will always be gold to us as they have been over the last one year.

The talks about financial inclusion in Africa has been ongoing for a while now. And Nigeria, the largest country on the continent has about 47% of its population excluded from the banking system. If Kia Kia proves its worth, it may be ushering in a new vista of opportunities through the financial inclusiveness of millions of Africans who are financially underserved, starting with Nigeria.

READ MORE   SpeedUP Africa to host Growth & Investment focused Startup Bootcamp in Ghana. Apply now

Need access to finance? Mr K is waiting to serve you. Head to the website immediately.


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