4G Capital surpasses $1 billion in loans to African entrepreneurs

4G Capital has disbursed more than $1 billion in loans to entrepreneurs across Kenya and Uganda since 2013, the fintech announced on June 23. The milestone spans over 7.6 million working capital loans extended to roughly 800,000 customers, according to the company, underscoring how far alternative credit models have travelled in markets where traditional bank lending has historically struggled to reach small business owners.

4G Capital is a Kenya-based fintech that provides working capital loans and business training to micro and small enterprises across Kenya and Uganda, using a hybrid model of field agents and AI-powered credit assessment to reach customers excluded from traditional banking. The company calls this its touch-tech model, combining more than 1,600 field agents across 226 branches with a digital lending layer that assesses each customer’s business cycle to size loans appropriately rather than applying blanket lending criteria across its customer base.

How 4G Capital’s lending model works

The company’s approach pairs supply chain financing with embedded business training, an attempt to address the twin barriers that typically keep informal sector entrepreneurs out of formal credit systems: lack of collateral and lack of financial literacy support once capital is in hand. 4G Capital says it maintains a 95% repayment rate, which it presents as evidence that financial inclusion and portfolio quality are not mutually exclusive in markets where formal credit access remains thin. Most of the company’s customers are women and young entrepreneurs, with women making up 73% of the customer base and more than half of borrowers operating in rural marketplaces where formal financial services are often absent altogether.

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According to the company, customers who build consistent repayment histories nearly double their borrowing capacity within 36 months, and average annual revenue growth among borrowers sits at 82%. 4G Capital also says its lending has contributed to more than 1.4 million jobs and generated over $3 billion in broader economic impact across the two markets, though these figures remain self-reported and have not been verified by an independent auditor or third-party research body.

Wayne Hennessy-Barrett, Founder and Executive Chairman of 4G Capital, attributed the milestone to the company’s customer base rather than its technology.

The announcement follows a string of external recognitions for the company this year. 4G Capital was placed on the Financial Times Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies 2026 list, ranking third among Kenyan companies in the fintech, financial services and insurance category, a sector that accounted for the largest share of the 130 companies on the continental list. The company is also a certified B Corp, which it describes as the highest-scoring fintech B Corp in Africa, and was named Best Fintech at the African Banker Awards 2025.

The billion-dollar figure also carries useful context when set against the company’s own lending history. 4G Capital had previously disclosed disbursing over $340 million between 2016 and 2022, which means a substantial share of its current $1 billion total has come in the years since, pointing to a sharp acceleration in loan volume that has tracked the expansion of its branch and agent network across both countries.

The milestone arrives as African fintechs face growing scrutiny over the durability of lending-led growth models, particularly those built on unsecured credit extended to informal sector borrowers with limited financial documentation. 4G Capital has not disclosed a detailed breakdown of loan sizes, default rates over time, or how its growth compares with peers operating in similar working capital lending niches in East Africa, such as Tala, Branch, or M-Kopa. The company says it is considering a Series D funding round to support its next phase of digital scaling, though no timeline or funding amount has been confirmed publicly.