WapiPay desires banks to deal with remittances as earnings in mortgage selections

WapiPay, a Kenyan fintech startup centered on digitising cross-border funds and remittances between Africa and Asia, has launched a credit score scoring software for Kenyan industrial banks, which it says will assist lenders use diaspora remittances to make mortgage selections for tens of millions of households that depend on cash despatched by kin overseas.

Based in 2019 by Eddie Ndichu and his brother Paul Ndichu as a global cash switch and overseas change supplier, the startup is betting on its Remittance Credit score Scorecard (RCS) software to analyse cash switch patterns of economic establishments to issue that into lending selections.

“For too lengthy, the regularity of remittance inflows has been ignored by conventional credit score algorithms,” Eddie Ndichu informed TechCabal on the sidelines of the Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi. “This scorecard provides lenders the information rails to soundly prolong credit score to households supported by the diaspora. We’re not simply transferring cash; we’re constructing a basis for wealth creation.”

Kenya’s FX earner

Whereas remittances are one in every of Kenya’s high overseas change sources, surpassing $5 billion (KES 649 billion) in 2025 for the primary time, the funds are largely excluded from earnings assessments utilized in credit score scoring. In line with the United Nations Convention on Commerce and Growth (UNCTAD), round 80% of inflows at present go towards quick consumption—together with meals, hire, healthcare, and faculty charges—with solely about 20% directed into financial savings or funding.

If broadly adopted, the mannequin might pull tens of millions of households into Kenya’s formal credit score market, reworking remittances from a security web into an asset-building software.

Ndichu mentioned the software converts transaction histories, together with cost frequency, dimension, and long-term stability, right into a credit standing that may be embedded in banks’ mortgage techniques. The corporate reckons this might allow remittance-dependent debtors to qualify for private loans, small enterprise credit score, and asset financing for the primary time. The push comes as Kenyan banks grapple with excessive default dangers, the place earnings volatility and casual employment make credit score evaluation troublesome. Against this, remittance recipients obtain regular month-to-month help that has traditionally gone unrecognised by most monetary establishments.