Improving Process Efficiency at Cherehani Africa
Published:
Students in the QUEST Honors Program, in a joint venture with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), worked with the YALI fellows to provide key insights into continuing to grow their startup companies. Cherehani Africa is a micro-finance company, focused on providing access to financial services and literacy to traditionally underserved rural communities. Kenya currently fosters a community of over 6 million women owned enterprises, yet less than 7% of the population has ever accessed formal credit. Cherehani Africa bridges this gap by providing high-tech and high-touch financial loans, focusing primarily on business loans as well as productive asset loans. To reduce risk, Cherehani Africa currently employs field officers to vet loan applications, provides financial education, and requires that all loan applicants be a part of a Chama in order to receive a loan. Our two recommendations are to implement a mentor training system to shift the responsibility of education from field officers to customers, and to reduce the risk of loan default by insuring every loan. Our recommendations address the scalability of Cherehani Africa, and aim to increase Cherehani’s ability to onboard more customers while also reducing their risk exposure toward defaulted loans.