“I’m passionate about working at Watu Credit because of the great support from management and the privilege of working with the best international experts and support teams”, Enos.
Photo credit: Watu Credit
The transportation industry in Africa is growing rapidly. Watu Credit, one of the key players in the market, provides asset financing for entrepreneurs, thereby improving the quality of their lives and making an impact in the mass market. Enos, one of the team members at Watu Credit, shares with us his career journey, passions, and what it takes to succeed as an employee of Watu Credit.
With a brief highlight of your career journey, tell us about what you do at Watu Credit.
When I graduated from high school, I was interested in ICT platforms and first trained at Seagate Computer College where I later qualified through VSO programs and became an instructor for 1 year before attaining my Diploma in ICT in the same field at the Technical University of Mombasa. After graduation, I joined Mississippi Communications Ltd, where I worked as a Support Tech in LTE Wimax Solutions as well as Satellite DTH/C-BAND installations for 2 years. I later joined Zarcom Ltd in 2015, a similar company that dealt with Satellite Solutions as part of the growing market in digital platforms during that period of time. At Zarcom, I was in charge of training on installations and mapping of 3-p Tv-Internet as well as DTH Satellite Solutions. At Zarcom, I participated in the Repoint Exercise of Digitizing Kenya by moving from Analog to Digital platforms, a project of Zuku Kenya and Wananchi Ltd. Through aligning and changing of frequency parameters both terrestrial Antennas, Fiber Optic Solutions in FTTH/FTTX GPON. I joined Watu Africa Ltd in 2017 in the IT Department as a System Support and Network Infrastructure Specialist which elevated me to the current position as a Support Project Administrator in HR/Office Administration.
Tell us a little bit about Watu Credit and how it became one of the prime financing services providers
Watu Credit is an asset finance company that wants to revolutionize the mass market transportation industry in Africa. We provide financing for motorbikes and tuk tuks to empower entrepreneurs and give our clients the chance to achieve their financial goals. Since we began operations in 2015, our focus has been on moving and improving people’s lives by providing them with quick and easy access to capital for the benefit of micro, small, medium enterprises to low and middle-income households. Our continuous innovation and pioneering solutions for our clients’ needs have made us keep growing and become one of the best asset financing service providers in Africa.
Why did you find it important to help African entrepreneurs scale their ventures? And why motorbikes and tuk-tuks?
Africa’s biggest demand is in the mode of transport. Motorbikes and tuk tuks create the most efficient way to travel. By empowering people to become entrepreneurs, we also fill in the gap created by the high unemployment rate in many African countries.
Watu Credit is available in Kenya, Uganda & Nigeria, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone. What has been the impact so far, how many people have you supported so far?
In Kenya alone, we have directly empowered over 200,000 people through direct asset ownership and more than 1,000,000 lives have been improved indirectly through the income generated by the numbers in our client portfolio.
What did you struggle with the most while breaking into new markets and how did you overcome that?
The struggle was first to understand the clients’ culture and build trust with them as part of the risk the company underwent. The success was all about minimizing the requirements needed as security in the asset ownership business.
What helps you stay passionate about your work at Watu Credit?
The great support from management and the privilege of working with the best international experts and support teams.
Besides the skill set required to execute the day-to-day tasks, what attributes do you look for in people looking to join Watu Credit?
From my own experience at Watu Credit, in a performance-based organization, one needs to have the confidence and experience to achieve the targets set by the organization. The company creates room as part of value addition in accommodating new ideas that create solutions and better performance. I also think it is important to be a teachable person because things are fluid in this industry and you should be ready to just roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done.
What has stood out for you as a Watu Credit team member and why should someone aspire to join this team?
Resistance, humility, and dedication are the primary key factors that I have experienced that lay as a pillar to achieve the goals set by the company. What I have also learned at Watu Credit is that good strategic planning overruns the fear of risk and instead, builds trust and goodwill to the business.
What do you think the future holds for Watu Credit and what role are you currently playing to contribute to this?
For Watu Credit as a whole, our future looks bright and there’s no limit to what we can achieve despite the ever-changing dynamics of the market. From my end, I’m offering office technical support that is key to our day-to-day operations.
