Jacqueline Owino

Blue Financial Services

The pan-African Group is the continent's largest MFI through branch network, product diversification and Geographic spread. Blue's core customer base predominantly consists of the continent's millions of gainfully employed but underbanked and underserved civil service workers. These employees are often only able to access rudimentary banking products, such as deposit accounts, and are largely excluded from mainstream financial services owing to insufficient collateral, lack of credit history or the relatively small loan size required. Accessing mainstream financial services is further obstructed by historically poor bank, and information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Blue's business model largely circumvents this through deductions at source – where the employer would deduct on behalf of the lender before remunerating the employee. In countries where the banking infrastructure allows, a parallel business model collecting through debit orders is operational. The Group's exceptional growth over nearly a decade can be contributed to its comprehensive industry knowledge, refined credit scoring and collection methodologies supported by the ability to source significant international development funding. This is enabled through continuous proprietary ICT improvement and a strategically placed distribution network.