Naivas wants you to own household goods and pay later

by Enock Bett · Published March 3, 2020 · Updated March 3, 2020

Naivas Supermarket has partnered with a technology credit financing firm, Aspira to give its customers a chance to purchase household items through credit. Lipa Baadaye is the partnership deal that will see the credit firm broker between the retailer and the customer by facilitating payment of the items sold on credit through daily or monthly installments distributed over a period of one year.

“Our research together with that of Aspira showed that Kenyans aspire to own good quality household goods, including electronics and furniture and need a service that gives them the flexibility to acquire and use the products while paying for them in small affordable amounts,” Naivas Chief Commercial Officer, Willy Kimani said.

The COO said that the chain settled on Aspira because of its advanced technology and trusted operation in the entire process – registration, verification, approval, and disbursement of the collected money from the customer to Naivas.

Mr. Kimani said customers who would purchase on credit will be allowed to carry the items after the completion of the process and will only have to be faithful in their payment. Aspira’s Lipa Baadaye was launched in Kenya in 2018 to help the subscribers make purchases from several retail stores across the country through credit and pay later. The app allows users to make payment within a period of 12 months without so much hassle.

One is able to access the app by downloading it from the Google Play store, sign in share some information about themselves, latest payslips, bank or MPESA statements, as well as a copy of the National Identity Card or Passport. The app will verify the customer’s creditworthiness through their bank activities or mobile banking statements like MPESA after which they’ll sign the financing contract and pay credit protection fee before proceeding to make purchases.

Naivas Supermarket recently acquired six stores previously owned by the now-defunct Nakumatt Supermarket. Its partnership with Aspira comes at a time the retailer is threatening to hike prices of items such as electronic gadgets and clothing citing supply shortages as a result of the coronavirus epidemic.