Zenka Finance wins most preferred non-banking loan platform award

The Financial Inclusion Awards (Fini Awards) 2019 held at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi on August 9, was the first of its kind in Kenya (http://www.finiawards.com/).

It is an annual event conceptualised to recognise, celebrate and award exemplary players making significant contributions towards the growth and development of Kenya and East’ Africa’s Financial Inclusion agenda.

FINANCE

The event was preceded by a fruitful panel discussion regarding the current state and future of financial inclusion in Kenya.

The panellists were drawn from SBM Bank - the lead sponsors of the event, from Sunculture – an organisation that provides solar power to rural clients on affordable credit terms as well as from Zenka Finance - a mobile fintech company set up in December 2018 (https://zenka.co.ke/). Zenka was represented by its CEO - Robert Masinde, who is also the current chairperson of the Digital Lenders Association of Kenya.

The panellists discussed how their various entities are contributing to financial inclusion. Zenka' CEO described how the company had brought innovation to the market to improve access and customer experience, how through the use of advanced algorithms and data science it had enhanced the reach and accuracy in meeting the credit needs of the client base.

As benefits a market challenger, Zenka keeps at searching for innovative solutions, having already introduced an AI-based chatbot supporting its CC or omnichannel access for the customers (via Google Play Store, App Store and USSD code).

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

Such a client-oriented approach combined with advanced technical solutions resulted in a dynamically growing customer base, increasing the number of 700,000 customers in just seven months!

No wonder, Zenka's efforts have been noticed and appreciated by three nominations in this edition of Fini Awards.

The company's name, together with other prominent well-established brands like Tala, Branch or Okolea appeared in the categories mentioned below:

1. The most preferred non-bank app

2. The fastest-growing non-bank app

3. Most promising non-bank app

The fact that the victory was determined by the voting conducted through an online platform throughout the month of July 2019 was doubly satisfactory.

The winner must have gathered the highest number of votes out of 200,000 of them to celebrate its success.

After the panel discussion and a sumptuous dinner, the tension was running very high, and the awards presentation for 21 main categories, such as agriculture, insurance, banking, mobile loan and others commenced.

TALA

The mobile loan category was in the centre of attention of the whole Zenka team representing the company at the Gala event, and the patience was shortly rewarded - Zenka won the first runners up for the fastest growing mobile app category whereby the overall winner was Tala.

Zenka was named the most preferred non-banking loan platform ahead of most nominees who had been in the market much longer.

Winning the two prestigious awards against such formidable competitors is a great honour for Zenka, especially given that it has been in operation for less than a year.

On the other hand, the victory also poses a challenge to the company to keep up the high standards and continue with delighting the customers who, no doubt, voted in large numbers to show their support and ensure the company's success at the Fini awards gala-night.

"Zenka is a market challenger. We seek for challenges, and nothing can motivate us more than such massive and heart-warming support given by our customers" – summarises Zenka's CEO.