(NAIROBI) – Digital credit firm Tala is cutting more jobs in Kenya as it moves to centralise its operations.
The company has told seven employees their positions will be declared redundant. This is the second round of job cuts in just over a year. The latest move is part of a wider plan to reduce the company’s global workforce and streamline how it works across different countries.
Tala said the decision comes from a shift to centralise many of its functions. Some roles currently done in Kenya will now be handled from the company’s global headquarters. The firm said this change will not affect its services to customers in the country.
In a statement, Tala explained the new model is designed to support a global goal of embedding its credit services into partner ecosystems at a larger scale. Embedding credit means attaching loans to other products such as insurance, financed devices or motorcycles. This method relies more on partners for marketing and finding new customers.
The seven affected posts represent about 10 percent of Tala’s 85 staff in Kenya. The company has not said which specific roles are being cut.
The latest redundancies follow a bigger round of layoffs in April last year. At that time, Tala removed 28 positions, mainly within its customer service and collections teams. The company had first planned to cut 55 roles but lowered the number after reviewing its plans. Those earlier cuts followed a change in 2022 that allowed borrowers to pick their own loan repayment dates. The new feature meant fewer customers fell into arrears or contacted support, leaving parts of the team overstaffed.
Tala was founded in 2011 and began operating in Kenya in 2014. It later expanded into Mexico, the Philippines and India. By 2025, the lender reported it had served more than 10 million customers and issued loans worth over 6 billion US dollars. It reached an annual revenue run rate of 300 million US dollars.
The restructuring comes as the digital lending market in Kenya grows more competitive. Data from the Competition Authority of Kenya shows M-Shwari held 34 percent of the market in 2023. Fuliza followed with 25 percent and KCB M-PESA with 15 percent. Tala held a 13 percent share, placing it ahead of Branch which had 9 percent.