CONSUMER PROTECTION & PRIVACY POLICY

  1. INTRODUCTION

This Consumer Protection Policy shall be the guiding document that will enable the Enreserve Limited (the Company) to deliver the required level of fair treatment, honesty and financial inclusiveness and meet its strategic objective for financial consumer protection in Kenya. The ‘Policy shall apply to the activities of the company operating by way of a license and under the The Central Bank Of Kenya (Digital Credit

Providers) Regulations, 2022. It also applies to the activities of any third party engaged by the Company for outsourced credit collections activities.

  • Purpose

The purpose of the policy is to ensure that the Enreserve Limited meets its legal, statutory, and regulatory requirements under consumer protection laws in Kenya and to ensure that all treatment of consumers is carried out compliantly.

The consumer protection laws include provisions that promote accountability and governance and as such the company has put comprehensive and effective governance measures into place to meet these provisions. The aim of such measures is to ultimately minimize the risk of infringement and uphold the protection of consumers. The policy also serves as a reference document for employees and third parties on the responsibilities of treatment and handling of consumers.

  • Scope

This consumer protection policy applies to all employees of the Company and third-party debt collection Agencies who shall carry out debt collection services on behalf of the company.

  • Definitions
    • Applicable laws shall mean all applicable laws, ordinances, regulations, rules, administrative orders, decrees and policies of the Kenyan government, governmental agency or department of the country.
    • Consumer means a person to whom goods or services are marketed in the ordinary course of the supplier’s business; or a person who has entered into a transaction with a supplier in the ordinary course of the supplier’s business, or a user of particular goods or a recipient or beneficiary of particular services, irrespective of whether that user, recipient or beneficiary was a party to a transaction concerning the supply of those particular goods and services
    • Complaint Handling Mechanism shall mean the internal and external consumer complaint mechanism established within the company.
    • Representation is a statement of account, assertion of facts, declaration, depiction, explanation, illustration, indication, narration, narrative, portraiture, portrayal, presentation, report, setting forth. It should be noted that a statement may be express or implied.
    • Unconscionable conduct is generally understood to mean a statement or an act which is particularly unreasonable, that it goes against good conscience.
  1. CONSUMER PROTECTION GUIDELINES

The Company shall abide by the following principles. This section shall define the guiding principles that shall govern the Company in the execution of its Lending activities in the processing of personal data.

  • Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency: Any
  • Purpose Limitation: All Personal
  • Data
  1. RIGHTS AND OF THE CONSUMER
  1. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE COMPANHY
  • Our Customers
    • Right of access:
  • We shall have t
    • Place appropriate technical measures to guarantee safety and protection of customer data;
  1. BOARD AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT OVERSIGHT

The Company has commissioned a compliance management system in place that effectively ensures conformity with Consumer Protection Laws. The Board of Directors must ensure that appropriate systems and processes are in place to maintain compliance with Consumer Financial Protection Laws.

The Board of Directors shall bear the primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with consumer protection laws and regulations. The board shall be vigilant in ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to follow all such requirements. The Board shall ensure compliance by their employees, collection agents and third-party providers and this shall be an integral part of the responsibilities of the Director in relation to this Policy.

  1. Comprehensive information provision

Throughout the registration and loan Application process, the Company shall provide its customers with different ways to access the relevant information required to make an informed decision about their loans and prices to enable them fully understand their rights and responsibilities as well as enable them make an informed choice. The Company shall ensure continuous improvement process that supports customer behavior monitoring to ensure that consumer rights are upheld at all times. The Company has placed procedures to ensure Information is accessible in various ways including but not limited to Taifapesa Mobile Lending App, Taifapesa website, FAQs brochures, messaging platforms and the Customer Care Help Desk. Comprehensive information is available to customer including fee information, rights and responsibilities, feedback, complaints and appeals mechanisms.

Our Lending platform ensures that the loan prices are vividly displayed so that the customer acquires an accurate view of the cost of credit associated with the loan they intend to take.

Further to this, the Company has mandatory terms and conditions which enumerate the Company’s loan offer terms. Further to this, the terms and conditions provide for ways through which a customer can seek for more information from the company therefore widening a customer’s access to information.

  1. Accessible and transparent complaints and appeals processes and systems

To ensure that the Company delivers high quality training and continually improves upon its systems and processes, Enreserve has an accessible and transparent complaints process and system. The complaints and appeals process quickly respond to allegations involving the conduct of its employees.

The principles of this process are as follows;

  • Complaints and appeals are investigated and resolved as quickly as possible.
  • All complaints and appeals are acknowledged in writing and finalised after a comprehensive investigation has occurred.
  • Procedural fairness and the principles of natural justice are adopted at each stage of the complaint/appeal process.
  1. Prohibited Activities
  • The following activities listed below are considered prohibited activities and any commission of the below by an employee or a third-party collection Agent shall be punishable.
    • To offer or provide any Product in violation of a Consumer Financial Protection Law or commit any act or omission in violation of a Consumer Financial Protection Law.
    • To engage in any unfair, deceptive or abusive act or practice.
    • To enter into or amend a contract for a Product with a term or condition that is unfair.
    • To engage in abusive debt collection practices.
    • To provide a Product to any person who does not have the legal capacity to enter into the transaction. E.g. minors without express written authorization from their Guardians.
    • To engage in any practice that fails to comply with Data Privacy and Protection Laws.
    • To fail or refuse to take any action required or issued by the Supervisory Authority.
  1. Prohibition on Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts and Practices.

The prohibition against abusive debt collection practices by employees and any third parties acting on their behalf is absolute. Abusive practices in the context of debt collection may take the form of threats, false statements, aggressive language, harassment of the debtor or the debtor’s family members, calling the debtor in the early morning or late evening hours, and excessive phone calls. The Company deems such conduct as unacceptable debt collection practices.

  1. Unfair Terms and Conditions

In

  1. Harassment and Abusive Debt collection practices

One

  1. Ethical and Accurate Advertising

The company will undertake a data protection impact assessment whenever it identifies that the processing operation will likely result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of any data subject. The data protection impact assessment will be done before processing the data. It is the responsibility of the Data Protection Officer to ensure that the Company conducts the impact assessment.

  1. Training

The company will ensure that all staff comprehend, have access to and can interpret the consumer protection policy and regulations. The company will ensure that staff have ongoing training, support, and assessments to ensure and demonstrate their knowledge on Consumer Protection.

New staff during the induction process will be trained on the Consumer protection policy.

  1. Consumer Complaints and Information

In the event of a complaint made to the company by any of its customers against any of the employees, the complaints shall be in line with the company’s internal dispute resolution process.

Further where a complaint is lodged against the company to the governing consumer protection authority, then it shall be subject to the process as outlined by the consumer protection guidelines of 2017. The Directors shall ensure that any request of these nature by the Regulatory Authority are responded to in a timely manner and that the Company provides all evidence to support its

  1. Breach Notification

Where

  1. Review of this policy

The Board of Directors is responsible for ensuring that this policy is reviewed on a yearly basis.