Nepal’s leading digital wallet eSewa will soon integrate a digital lending feature. The feature will be available in the eSewa mobile app and will let users exchange the lending service.
For this, eSewa will need to coordinate with a few banks. Because as a company, eSewa won’t lend the money to users directly. The partner banks for the service will give loans to users. The company says that its digital lending service will come complying with the procedures of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
However, the service will pose challenges. Particularly, customer identification will be a hurdle to deal with. Apart from this, determining the amount a user could get in lending would be another difficulty. For this, eSewa could prefer a digital footprint which would help find out user credibility on various terms. As per reports, eSewa has already started homework on the digital footprint.
For e.g, paying users’ frequency or status of paying for drinking water, and other utility bills could establish their eligibility for digital loans. The value of transactions will directly have an impact on the user’s credit score.
Also read: eSewa is Launching its Ride-Sharing Service With a Dedicated Team
Credit score on eSewa
Soon, eSewa users will also be able to see their credit scores on launching the app. This feature directly relates to the under-plan digital loan or lending. This will help users find out how much loan they might get, and find their eligibility.
There are not many details on the eSewa digital loan feature as yet. So, this feature might be about giving users a small amount from the bank to pay for utility bills or maybe a moderate amount of money for “other” purposes. But given that eSewa has many payment features within the app, it’s safe to assume that the loan could be made available to help fulfill payment for various bill payments, primarily at least. When it launches, we will have plenty more on it.
eSewa is one of the top digital wallets in Nepal and offers various payment services such as internet, water, and other utility bills, as well as government revenue and other types of payments. The app is en route to becoming a super app with service differentiation and value creation with another service. eSewa is also planning on issuing its IPO.
Being able to get a loan on eSewa would be a fantastic addition with many conveniences. Just imagine being short of a few rupees while paying your internet bills, and instantly being able to fulfill it with a loan. Let’s hope the plan materializes soon.