Kenyan lenders are urged to re-evaluate their loan onboarding processes, arguing that the effectiveness of debt collection is determined by the initial credit scoring engine, not the collection efforts themselves.

• The core argument is that a flawed scoring engine leads to future collection failures, rather than the collections process itself.
• The article criticizes the reliance on outdated scoring methods like ID cards, payslips, and bureau checks in Kenya, which fail to capture the financial behavior of many modern workers.
• A modern scoring engine is proposed, which analyzes diverse data points such as mobile money patterns and utility payments with customer consent to better assess risk.
• The piece emphasizes that improving the scoring engine is a boardroom decision critical for business health, not just an IT upgrade.