Notes worth reading before you apply.

Guide

What to prepare

Bring the documents that let someone understand the request without a second meeting.

1. National ID, or a passport if that is what you use.
2. A phone number you actually answer during working hours.
3. The amount, in shillings, and the date you need it.
4. The purpose in one sentence. “School fees for term two” is enough. “Business expansion” is not.
5. Proof of income or trade: a pay slip, invoices, or a mobile-money statement covering a few recent weeks.
6. If the money is for a business, where that business operates.

Guide

How to read an offer

Do not sign on the total alone. Read these lines and ask if any of them are missing.

1. The principal — the amount that will actually be paid to you or to the supplier.
2. The total you will repay, and every fee included in that total.
3. The instalment, how often it falls due, and the last date.
4. What happens if you pay early, and what happens if you pay late.
5. Anything you are asked to pledge, and when it is released.

If a charge appears only after you have said yes, stop and ask for a revised offer. A clear lender can rewrite the page.

Guide

Shop cash and home cash

The most common reason a trading loan becomes difficult is that the day’s sales also paid for food, transport and airtime, and the instalment was calculated as if they had not.

1. Pick one place for shop money. A separate wallet, a tin, or a mobile-money line used only for the business.
2. Once a week, write three numbers: what came in, what the shop spent, what you took home.
3. Set the instalment from what is left, not from the best week of the year.
4. If the home number and the shop number are the same, say so at the start. It changes the offer, and it should.