Njugush is in his mid-20s.

He got an average grade in high school which was good enough to join a technical institute.  

But his parents did not have money to pay for his tertiary education.  

So he does odd jobs daily to put money in his pocket.

Njugush pushes hand carts "Mkokoteni". 

He offloads delivery trucks at a supermarket. 

He delivers food for one of these online retailers.

Njugush makes about Sh200 daily. Half of which goes to pay rent. 

The remaining amount  barely covers his food and fare. 

And so like many of the Kenyan youths he Fulizas. 

"I took fuliza because I had nothing'" he said "I was broke as hell, I had no transport money, food money, rent, and I have no job,"

Fuliza is an emergency personal overdraft facility introduced by Safaricom Kenya's leading telecoms firm. 

The service is so popular that it - like M-Pesa - the mobile money transfer service is a verb in the Kenyan vocabulary. 

An individual's fuliza borrowing limit is set depending on the volume of an individual's mobile money transactions.  

Safaricom has secured itself against default ensuring that the Fuliza amount is first deducted whenever money goes into an individual's mobile money wallet. 

With very few qualifications needed and limits automatically generated, getting into Fuliza is easy and fast.

It takes less than 10 minutes to register, apply and get money for as little as Sh500. 

"What keeps me in fuliza is that it doesn't require any qualifications to get the money," Njugush said. "It really helps."

His Fuliza limit is Sh500 which is repayable in a maximum of 30 days. 

There are times he has taken longer to repay meaning he was unable to access the facility.

Those were the days when  he had no daily income coming in.

"Work was low so sometimes I do not get the daily jobs so I do not pay my Fuliza limit on time,"

But as soon as money came - and he cleared the outstanding Fuliza debt of Sh500 - he was able to borrow.

"I do not regret joining Fuliza," he says.

"I think everyone who is on Fuliza shares the same view," 

"You leave Fuliza when you have fully paid it and do not need it," 

"And if you have paid Fuliza it means that you are financially stable," 

"What is the need of borrowing Fuliza if you are financially stable?" he poses. 

To Njugush financial stability is having a permanent job.

"I don't have a permanentl job because you must have connections in Kenya to get a job,"

This leaves Njugush living everyday as it comes. And a reliance on mobile money loans.

Fuliza was not his first mobile money loan.

"Branch was the first mobile money loan I borrowed in 2019," Njugush said, having applied and qualified for Sh500. 

 "I took the loan because I was struggling with my financial status," 

"I repaid the loan but they declined my request to apply for another loan because I took more time than the duration given for repaying the loan,"

He was to repay the loan in a week but instead repaid it after two weeks.