Expanding Access to Finance Across Africa

A new credit intelligence platform from Kenya, called PEMiG, is helping lenders tap into previously underserved markets by providing more accurate risk assessments for borrowers with limited formal credit history.

Founded in 2022 by Felix Sifuna, Philip Amwata, Priya Maharaj, and Lilian Kariba, PEMiG developed a proprietary causal credit scoring engine (CCSE) that goes beyond traditional bureau data. This system incorporates social capital analytics and behavioral credit scoring to create dynamic borrower profiles.

“Over 80% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are thin-file or no-file borrowers,” Sifuna explained. “Traditional models miss this massive segment, forcing lenders to either exclude them or take on poorly understood risk.” PEMiG’s CCSE aims to solve this by asking ‘who is this person really?’ rather than just looking at their credit history.

Key Benefits for Lenders:

• Better underwriting decisions with reduced defaults
• Improved portfolio management and lower provisioning
• Safe expansion into new borrower segments
• More accurate risk assessment, preventing both exclusions and blind approvals

The platform has already seen strong adoption with five active lender partners processing over US$250,000 in loan volume across 1,500 borrowers. This early traction demonstrates the demand for more inclusive credit solutions.

“We’re currently generating US$5,000 in monthly recurring revenue,” Sifuna noted. “Our focus is deepening value with existing partners and converting pilots into full contracts as we expand across East Africa.” With a vision to create a continent-wide credit intelligence layer, PEMiG aims to unlock access to finance for millions of previously excluded borrowers while helping lenders make smarter risk decisions.

What makes PEMiG unique is its application of causal AI - most alternative credit scoring solutions rely on mobile money data alone. This gives PEMiG’s assessments a deeper level of predictive accuracy, going beyond simple correlations.