MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Twiga Foods Uses Mama Mboga Owners’ Mobile Phone Data to Assess Credit Risk, Issue Microloans in Kenya via IBM Blockchain System

Twiga Foods, a distributor of produce to 2,600 kiosks in Kenya, recently began lending to its customers to enable them to purchase more inventory. The loans to the owners of the kiosks, known in Swahili as mama mbogas, are distributed via SMS (short message service, also known as text messaging). The system, which was designed by local staff of US-based technology firm IBM, assesses a customer’s creditworthiness based on his or her “purchase records from a mobile device.” It records data using blockchain technology, which has advantages relating to transparency, security and speed.

During an eight-week pilot phase, 220 owners of mama mbogas borrowed an average amount equivalent to USD 30. The cost was 1 percent for four days or 2 percent for eight days, with loan proceeds going directly to purchase inventory from Twiga Foods. Kiosks’ order sizes went up by 30 percent, and profits increased by 6 percent.

Twiga Foods, which sells on a cash-free basis, has raised USD 13 million since it was founded in 2013. IBM, formerly known as International Business Machines, reported gross revenue of USD 79 billion for 2017.

Sources and additional resources

IBM article
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/04/ibm-twiga-foods/

About IBM
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/us/en/?lnk=fab

Crunchbase profile on Twiga Foods
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/twiga-foods

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