A look at how Tala and other microfinance tech startups have exploded in Kenya, offering sky-high interest rates that have left some borrowers with nothing
1 in 10 adults—have defaulted on a digital loan. Others are trapped in a debt cycle, borrowing from one app to pay off another https://www.bloomberg.com/... Lydia DePillis / @lydiadepillis : This @ZekeFaux story about predatory “financial inclusion” in Kenya is everything wrong with Silicon Valley: VC-backed startups extract profits at scale by appifying previously analog processes and coat themselves in a gloss of innovation and empowerment https://www.bloomberg.com/... @voidsrus : imagining the guy who saw historical european attempts to steal all of africa and adjusted his jungle explorer hat and says “let's do that but in an app” in a british noble accent https://twitter.com/... @fedonamission : here in the west, we do principled slavery/indentured servitude via payday loan apps instead of china's rudimentary forced labor cc @CityBureaucrat https://www.bloomberg.com/... Ken Banks / @kiwanja : Kenya is becoming something of a living lab for tech-based financial products, but regulation and education (as always, it seems) lag behind. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Kozhikoden Manyu / @abhimanyuma : Given the number of predatory lending firms masquerading as “FinTech startups” in India, this article matters a lot. https://twitter.com/... Delicious Tacos / @delicious_tacos : Absolute must read. Legit congrats to Kenyans for not paying back these loans https://twitter.com/... Young Thug Esoterica / @dumbobutg : Uber to work in Nairobi yesterday: debt collector called the driver. Massive fuckery in Kenya's financial market. You borrow $30 at 3% per day. Companies are making multiple times what banks do. No regulation. https://twitter.com/... Alex Wayne / @aawayne : U.S. tech entrepreneurs are flooding Kenya with microlending apps that charge upwards of 180% annualized interest — payday loans for Africans, basically. Crazy story by @ZekeFaux https://www.bloomberg.com/... Ainsley Harris / @ainsleyoc : Funny how lending looks a lot like lending, even when you call it “financial inclusion” https://www.bloomberg.com/... Katia Dmitrieva / @katiadmi : Tech startups offering loans with 180% rates to poor people. Cool, cool, cool totally normal and kosher move along nothing to see. https://www.bloomberg.com/... from the tireless @ZekeFaux Silvia Killingsworth / @silviakillings : Remember how 15 years ago microfinance was the hot new thing that was gonna save the world? Nope https://www.bloomberg.com/...
“These mobile loan apps have commercialized poverty” - @BW on the promise and problems of apps offering high-interest loans in Kenya. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Silicon Valley start ups operating in Kenya are more predatory than helpful to the most vulnerable. Tala, Okash, Branch and all such credit applications are more detrimental than good for us. https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @BW
About 2.5 million Kenyans—1 in 10 adults—have defaulted on a digital loan. Others are trapped in a debt cycle, borrowing from one app to pay off another https://www.bloomberg.com/...
This @ZekeFaux story about predatory “financial inclusion” in Kenya is everything wrong with Silicon Valley: VC-backed startups extract profits at scale by appifying previously analog processes and coat themselves in a gloss of innovation and empowerment https://www.bloomberg.com…
imagining the guy who saw historical european attempts to steal all of africa and adjusted his jungle explorer hat and says “let's do that but in an app” in a british noble accent https://twitter.com/...
here in the west, we do principled slavery/indentured servitude via payday loan apps instead of china's rudimentary forced labor cc @CityBureaucrat https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Kenya is becoming something of a living lab for tech-based financial products, but regulation and education (as always, it seems) lag behind. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Uber to work in Nairobi yesterday: debt collector called the driver. Massive fuckery in Kenya's financial market. You borrow $30 at 3% per day. Companies are making multiple times what banks do. No regulation. https://twitter.com/...
U.S. tech entrepreneurs are flooding Kenya with microlending apps that charge upwards of 180% annualized interest — payday loans for Africans, basically. Crazy story by @ZekeFaux https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Tech startups offering loans with 180% rates to poor people. Cool, cool, cool totally normal and kosher move along nothing to see. https://www.bloomberg.com/... from the tireless @ZekeFaux