TransUnion, a leading global credit and information management provider, has launched its TransUnion Credit Score for the Rwandan market on the back of rebranding CRBAfrica under the TransUnion banner.
CRBAfrica falls under parent company TransUnion Africa Holdings, a credit risk management organisation with a presence in 11 countries across Africa. As credit reporting and risk management products have been rolled out to these various regions, TransUnion has been able to offer financial institutions, retailers and other credit granting groups valuable insight into the credit health of their customers, allowing for improved credit decisioning.
“The synergy between the two companies will enable the combined business to offer clients an even more compelling value proposition,” said Grant Phillips, CEO TransUnion Africa. “With more than 20 years of experience in credit referencing and debt management in the Africa marketplace, CRBAfrica has built strong relationships with their clients. Their high business ethic, as well as their commitment to the region as a whole will forever underpin our business.
“We will now be able to offer an expanded a range of solutions to customers across Africa, including the TransUnion Credit Score, which is now available for Rwanda. This solution is an essential tool that eliminates many of the inherent issues with manual underwriting and pre-screening methods, providing lenders with an objective, data driven measurement on which to base decisions. This is essential in reducing the risk associated with credit lending, which in turn is critical for sustainable economic growth,” continued Phillips.”
In order to ensure the highest level of relevance, the Credit Score solution has been tailored specifically for the Rwandan market, providing lenders with an accurate measurement of debtor and customer credit health. The solution creates a score, along with reason codes, that gives an accurate overview of the customer’s credit health.
“This score is developed using both positive and negative information from your debtor’s credit reports — derived from our proprietary consumer and business credit database — as well as data obtained from various public sources in Rwanda,” said Aimable Nkuranga, country manager for TransUnion Rwanda. “This ensures that the score is relevant and specific to the local population and their risk profiles.”
The score further provides a measurement indicating which clients are likely to be profitable and which are high risk, allowing lenders to make decisions based on the level of risk that is acceptable to them. Armed with this information, lenders are empowered to make more informed decisions, lower their risk and increase their profits through effective risk-based pricing strategies.
For lenders, the TransUnion Credit Score enables objective risk evaluation and streamlined decision-making, which in turn, helps to improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience. Lenders are also empowered to measure expected future customer performance, manage customer credit limits and collection obligations effectively and rank debtors by their level of credit risk. In addition, by gaining access to accurate, timely information, lenders are also better able to identify opportunities for cross-selling, target new markets and grow the customer base.
“The ability to extend credit based on informed, insightful decisions offers a number of benefits to the Rwandan market. Not only does this assist with fuelling economic growth, it also increases consumer access to essential resources and enables credit grantors to allocate costs and financial reserves more efficiently. The TransUnion Credit Score is a significant step forward in advancing the credit infrastructure in the Rwandan market, and we are excited about the incremental value-add solutions we will be rolling out in the very near future,” Phillips concluded.