Kuda Bank MFB, a disruptive fintech and neobank has been recording financial losses in the past two years. Within a two year period, the net loss of the bank stands at over $16 Million dollars.
By the end of the 2021 financial year, the company recorded a loss of ₦6,092,554,866 ($14,214,681), a 602% rise from the ₦868,062,000 ($2,025,295) loss it made in 2020, according to its financial report. .
The financial report indicated that the company’s revenue increased by 4,315% from ₦72,649,000 in 2020 to ₦3,207,177,570 in 2021. However, after every expense had been deducted, the company closed the year at a net loss, with high credit loss/impairment charge and operating expenses contributing the most to the loss.
Bad loans delivered the hardest stroke
The report said that “the nonperforming loan (NPL) recorded by the firm is too high for the comfort calculated at 69%”, and this, as expected, drove the neobank to a high impairment rate—valued at ₦2,258,698,669. For context, loans are considered impaired when, based on current information and events, it is probable that the creditor will be unable to collect all interest and principal payments due according to the contractual terms of the loan agreement.
Specifically, in the analysis part of the report, the impairment is said to have eroded 96% of the interest income made from the loan offer. What this means, in general, is that Kuda extended a lot of bad credit through its overdraft product and that ate into its balance sheet.
Kuda, a few days before it announced its $25 million Series A round in March 2021, started piloting its overdraft product with over 2,500 users who “have been using their Kuda accounts actively”. By June, it claimed that the product had hit 50,000 users weekly. The company once said in a statement that at the end of the second quarter of 2021, they had disbursed $20 million worth of credit to over 200,000 qualified users, with a 30-day repayment period.
In fact, the company’s co-founder and CEO Babs Ogundeyi once claimed that the neobank has seen “minimal” default because of its approach. “We use all the data we have for a customer and allocate the overdraft proportion based on the customer’s activities, aiming for it not to be a burden,” Ogundeyi said in that statement.
It’s worth mentioning that traditional banks generate a big part of their revenue from lending. In fact, while Kuda’s NPL ratio ended the year at 69%, the average ratio in the traditional banking industry dropped to 4.8% in the same period. Traditional banks mostly extend credit to a few low-risk businesses with substantial collateral that already mitigates defaulting, while Kuda only works with users’ activities on its app. Still, the difference between the two ratios is disturbing.
The aforementioned financial report analysis similarly stated that “the firm’s risk appetite, criteria and strategy relating to retail and business loan calls for immediate restructuring.”