LendPlus: 2yr-old Loan App that Gave 150,000 Loans in 2022

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a part of our Money254 Partner series and is produced in partnership with LendPlus Kenya. For more on Money254’s editorial policy, read here.

Every day of 2022, over 400 digital loans were approved and disbursed to Kenyans across the country via the LendPlus Digital Loan App - a digital loan app that is barely two years old in the Kenyan market. 

That is just about one loan being approved every 3.5 minutes. With the average loan amount disbursed - as LendPlus tells Money254 - being Ksh4,000, the lender is fast becoming a good option for Kenyans looking for a quick cash injection to fund their urgent day-to-day transactions. 

LendPlus (legal name Aventus Technology Limited), which began its Kenya operations in 2021, is one of the more recent loan apps in the market that is offering Kenyans an alternative route to financing their short-term needs. 

The lender that offers digital loans of up to a relatively high maximum of Ksh30,000 at a daily rate of 2%, grew its downloads on the Google Play Store by over 260,000 indicating a growing willingness by Kenyans to borrow from the app, best known for its loan repayment extension feature. 

This brought the total downloads of the LendPlus app to 833,136 at the end of 2022 since launch. The app ended the year with a 4.1 star rating out of a maximum of 5 stars. 

In addition to the repayment extension feature, LendPlus also allows users to choose their preferred repayment date, only requires an ID number to sign-up and has a relatively high first loan limit of Ksh15,000 as compared to other digital lenders. 

Read on to learn more on where the LendPlus Digital Loan App stands out and how it compares to other digital loan apps in Kenya.

LendPlus App Loan Repayment Extension

While the LendPlus Digital Loan has a minimum tenure of five days and a maximum tenure of 30 days, it is one of the few digital lenders allowing borrowers to extend their tenure if they are unable to repay the full amount on time. 

Sometimes, your bills may pile up, your debtors may delay making payments or something may come in the way of your making prompt payments. If this happens to you, one standout feature of the LendPlus digital loan app is the ability to extend your repayment several times by up to the number of days your loan was due. 

This is allowed at no extra cost - if you extend repayment before the loan falls into default. But the loan will still continue to attract the daily interest fee of 2% over the new prolonged period. Such that instead of a 30-day loan, you will have effectively taken a 60-day loan at 2% per day if you were to extend it by another30 days, for example. 

Also, you will need to pay the accumulated interest (not the principal) up to the date of repayment prolongation for your extension to be approved. That is, if you request extension on day 30 - due date - you will need to pay interest accrued for the 30 days only and then your loan will be extended for a maximum of 30 days. After this, you can still request another extension, and so on. 

However, note that if you choose to repay the loan early, you still have to pay the full amount of interest for the tenure that you had selected on application. 

For example, if you apply for a 10-day loan and pay within two days, you will still have to pay the entire interest amount that you would have paid if you repaid in 10 days. 

This is a standard practice across all digital lenders in Kenya today. Early repayment, nevertheless, is beneficial in that it can help you increase your loan limit with LendPlus. 

Prompt Approvals

The lender promises a quick turnaround time of just 15 minutes from when you download the application from the Google Play Store to when you receive the amount you applied for into your M-PESA account.

This is, however, subject to the applicant qualifying for the amount applied for and providing the requisite information needed to approve the application - this includes filling out a form that details among other things your sources of income, profession/employment type, and entering your national identification (ID) card number. 

To be eligible for a LendPlus App Digital Loan, you have to be a Kenyan citizen of 21 years and above, be employed or self-employed with a steady income, have a valid mobile phone number with an active M-PESA mobile wallet, and have a National Identity (ID) Card.  

LendPlus, however, does not lend to Kenyans in some professions such as those in the army, police, or the security sector. There are also some counties that LendPlus is yet to begin issuing loans to. You also need to have a credit history and generally be aged between 21 and 60 years to be eligible for a LendPlus digital loan. 

Choose Your Own Repayment Date

LendPlus allows all customers to choose the repayment period they are most comfortable with as opposed to pre-selecting a tenure for you. 

Given the loan has a minimum tenure of 5 days and a maximum repayment period of 30 days, you can choose any number of days between these as your repayment period and plan around your needs. 

If you choose a period less than the maximum, then you are able to save yourself the additional interest you would have been charged if the app were to restrict you to the maximum tenure.

Note, as is the standard practice among all digital lenders in Kenya, you are charged interest on the selected loan tenure even when you repay early. 

For example, if you needed a 7-day loan since someone who owes you was going to pay up in 7 days or less, you can choose this specific loan tenure as opposed to 30 days where you would have to pay the 2% daily interest for the 23 extra days. 

Relatively High Loan Amounts

While the LendPlus Digital Loan is an app-based digital loan, even a first-time applicant can qualify for a first loan amount of up to Ksh15,000 making this option a viable consideration even for small business owners looking for a quick cash injection. Note that the first loan has a maximum repayment period of 20 days. 

Once you have taken and successfully repaid your first loan (in 20 days), you can qualify for a loan amount of up to Ksh30,000 on your second and subsequent loans where the maximum repayment period is also extended to a maximum of 30 days as compared to a maximum of 20 days for a first loan. 

Note that the amount you qualify for is determined individually by the lender’s internal system that considers multiple factors about a customer’s profile including their credit history.

The LendPlus team promises its users that they will continue innovating and offering more options to meet the needs of borrowers in 2023.  

"As we start 2023, we’re confident it will be a brighter year. We will not be rolling back the initiatives above but expanding them. In a world of uncertainties, the only thing we can control is our commitment to deliver solutions for Kenyans to improve their financial wellbeing and we’ll be offering more than ever in the year to come." 

How LendPlus Compares to Other Digital Loan Apps on the Play Store

• LendPlus: 833,000 downloads, 4.0 Stars
• Opesa: 1 million+ downloads, 4.0 Stars
• Zenka: 5 million+ downloads, 4.2 stars
• FlashPesa: 1 million+, 4.3 stars
• Tala - 10 million+, 4.4 stars
• Branch - 10 million+, 4.4 stars