Credit reference bureau Metropol Ltd has today launched a revolutionary credit rating service that will allow users access to information on credit score and reports via mobile phones.
Dubbed Metropol Crystobol, the programme was inaugurated by Mr Habil Olaka, CEO Kenya Bankers Association, at Stanley Hotel.
“The programme leverages on mobile phones technology as an interface for sharing credit information among borrowers and lenders. The SMS option adopted allows customers to use any cell phone thereby making access to the service easy,” said Mr Olaka.
Mr Olaka noted that the use of mobile phone technology to enable people track their credit transactions is a leap forward that will save people the time and resources that one has to use in visiting the institutions.
“Many people visit banks and other financial institutions in order to know the status of their credit. This new service being launched today will save them the money and other resources they have to spend in order to have these services done,” said Olaka, lauding Metropol for the milestone.
He urged Metropol to provide confidentiality to customer information to safeguard them unscrupulous money lenders as a way of building confidence in the service. “Nowadays the money lending market is flooded with greedy money lenders who want to exploit the innocent Kenyans. Metropol should have a measure in place to counter this,” added Mr Olaka.
Contrary to the reigning misconception, credit reference bureaus are not avenues to blacklist and frustrate credit access but rather to help Kenyans build credit profiles will facilitate access to affordable credit as well as more favorable negotiation on negotiation terms, according to Metropol Managing Director Mr Sam Omukoko.
“The intent to open such a service is to diffuse the feeling that credit bureaus are a blacklist that aid in fleecing money from people without proper knowledge of how credit terms from financial institutions work.
“We want to bring light to customers by killing the feeling that credit bureaus do not care about their customers. We want to enable borrowers engage with lenders based on their credit profile,” said Omukoko.
The credit bureau which was set up in 2009 also protects lenders in knowing the kind of borrowers they have, since it will have a central database of borrowers and lenders, according to the Project Manager Kenya Credit Information Sharing Initiative (KCISI), Mr Jared Getenga.
“Statistics show that only 5% of Kenyans are bad debtors or none performers in their credit habits. Building a central database on individuals and their credit habits will help bring aboard the 95% who are good debtors and increase their credit acceptance rate,” said Getenga,
“At Metropol we will have a database of borrowers as well as lenders managed from a central point. This will enable the lenders as well as borrowers have enough information on who to borrow or lend money to,” said Mr Getenga, adding that they aim to reach out to SACCOs and micro financial institutions before the end of the year.
“In August we will pilot the data on micro financial institutions, so that we include them in our credit reference bureau,” added Getenga.
Metropol has partnered with Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) paving way for many students to join universities. For two years now, HELB has incorporated credit referencing into their system and 56,000 former loaners are registered as positive payers with the bureau.
“Through partnership with Metropol, over 56,000 loanees have cleared their loans, which has enabled more students to access the loans during their studies,” said Mr. Mung’are from HELB.
Crystobol comes complete with a set of SMS solutions, which will allow access to credit scores and reports, quick responses to complaints, general information on the credit market and the economy, as well alert services that will notify the customers on their credit profiles and any access to their profiles information.
It will entail one registering by just sending the word Metroreg followed by his or her full name and ID number, which will function as a password, to 6876.
“The more people register with credit reference bureau, the easier the access to loans. Crystobol provides a way in for customers to proactively manage their credit profiles and will soon become a custom of trade,” said Omukolo.
He added: “Soon, the six month wait for individuals who want bank loans will be faced out and credit financiers will be able to tailor their credit facilities to the customers, based on the pool of information in the credit reference bureau.”
