It was on a cold July morning and I was still coiled up in my bed having nowhere to go having had lost my job a month earlier, when my phone rang.
By OKash Borrower
The caller was an unwelcome guest at that time. It was OKash. Before I could even pick the call, I could guess what it was all about because I had delayed in repaying my loan of Sh5,000 by over a month.
But as I figured out on whether to pick the call or ignore it, I accidentally tapped on the 'answer' button upon which I told myself that I had no other option than to listen to the caller.
But I had all along been wrong. The call wasn't the usual reminder calls I had always gotten before whenever I delayed on repayment. It was a call of relief. I term it as such because the caller had some good news for me pertaining my overdue loan.
The caller told me that OKash was offering a 50 per cent waiver on penalties that late borrowers had been slapped with as a result of late repayment.
As regards to my pre-pandemic loan of Sh5,000 which had risen to Sh7,000, the OKash caller, told me that with the 50% waiver on accrued penalty, I only had to pay Sh6,000 after which my penalty would be waived.
The OKash lady would go on to inform me that after that if I opted to take another loan and clear it on time, I stood to enjoy the second loan installment for free and receive up to 80% bonus of repayment.
I knew immediately that this was a good deal that I could not afford to ignore. In my M-Pesa I had Sh8,200 and which I was spending sparingly aware that a dark cloud hang ahead of me if I dared misspend it.
But this OKash offer was irresistible. After wrestling with myself for quite awhile on what my next course of action would be, I eventually decided to repay the loan under the terms the lady had outlined to me.
Today, I do not regret that single decision because after repaying the loan I immediately applied for another one after promising myself that I had to repay it on time to enjoy the aforementioned benefits.
To cut a long story short, it is that new loan that I applied that same day that I used to set up my small business of selling kienyeji boiled eggs in my neighborhood in Juja.
I began with two trays but as we talk today, I am selling over five trays a day of the same eggs. I have no desire to return to work even if called upon to report as we had been promised before being laid off.
Taking loans from OKash and repaying them on time has enabled me to sustain myself since then and that is the path I want to maintain. For indeed it is that single call that changed my life for better. Thank you OKash!