Janet Kuteli is driving financial inclusion through Fortune Credit, providing accessible loans and empowering underserved Kenyan communities.
Many believed Janet Kuteli was taking an unnecessary risk when she left a secure senior banking career in 2014. After all, she had built nearly two decades of experience at the Co-operative Bank and National Bank of Kenya, climbing into the kind of leadership positions most people aspire to. But Kuteli had noticed something about the financial system she was part of – it was not built for everyone.
Millions of hardworking Kenyans at the base of the economic pyramid, from boda boda riders to smallholder farmers, were locked out of mainstream banking. They had potential and ambition but lacked access to financial products that made sense for their realities. This was an opportunity for Kuteli, and that’s how Fortune Credit Limited was born.
Leaving banking to serve the underserved
Armed with an MBA and a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from Kenyatta University, Janet Kuteli knew the technical side of finance inside out. But what truly set her apart was her ability to see the human side of things. She had met farmers struggling to fund inputs, traders unable to expand shops, and thousands of boda boda riders renting motorcycles at exorbitant daily rates.
In that struggle, she saw possibility. Why couldn’t finance bend to fit people’s lives instead of the other way around? That question became the foundation of Fortune Credit.
The Fortune Credit model
Fortune Credit Limited is a Kenyan microfinance institution dedicated to catalysing economic empowerment among Kenya’s rural and peri-urban populations. Its core mission is to provide tailored financial services, including savings, credit, and insurance products, aimed at promoting economic growth and social impact among underserved communities such as smallholder farmers, small traders, pastoralists in arid and semi-arid lands, youth, and women.
The organisation’s standout innovation was the “ride-to-own” model for boda boda riders. Kuteli’s research showed many riders paid up to KSh 500 daily just to rent bikes, never building equity in the assets that earned them a living. Her solution was to let them make those same daily payments toward ownership.
Since its founding, Fortune Credit has disbursed more than 40,000 loans to over 35,000 active customers across 20 counties. Approximately 62% of these clients are women, 24% are youths, and 54% are from rural populations.
Beyond money: Social and ecological change
Kuteli’s vision stretches beyond credit. Through education loans, children who might have dropped out of school stay enrolled. With clean energy financing, households move from smoky kitchens to solar lighting and clean cooking. And through e-mobility loans, riders adopt electric motorcycles, reducing costs while contributing to climate sustainability.
Partnerships and recognition
Fortune Credit was a finalist for the 2023 European Microfinance Award and a semi-finalist in the 2024 MIT Solve Global Economic Prosperity Challenge. In late 2024, the AlphaMundi Group’s SocialAlpha-Bastion Investment Fund injected capital to expand lending and reach more underserved populations. By 2027, they aim to distribute more than 15,000 clean energy products, deepen digital financial services, and expand across Africa.
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