Case Study | SharpenAI
By SharpenAI Team on August 14, 2025
Overview
Majibu Africa is a Tier 3 lending company focused on buy-now-pay-gradually (BNPG) financing solutions. It offers consumers hassle-free financing to purchase products upfront and pay back the cost in affordable installments over time. As a financial services provider committed to inclusion and flexibility, Majibu Africa serves a growing customer base that values the ability to “buy now and pay gradually” for everyday goods and big-ticket items alike.
Business Challenge
Despite strong demand for its BNPG loans, Majibu Africa was losing a high volume of potential customers during the online application process. Each month, over 8,000 applicants would start a loan application on Majibu’s platform. However, many of these prospects abandoned the form before completion, leaving their applications (and loans) unfinished. This drop-off meant thousands of promising leads slipped away monthly, representing lost opportunities for both new business and greater financial inclusion. The challenge for Majibu Africa was clear: how to re-engage those abandoned applicants and convert them into active customers before they disappeared for good.
Objectives
To tackle this issue, Majibu Africa set clear, metrics-driven objectives. The primary goal was to re-engage a sizable share of the abandoned applicants – targeting about 8–10% of those lost leads – by reaching out and encouraging them to continue their loan application. Just as importantly, Majibu aimed to convert those re-engaged prospects into actual sales conversations by getting them to book meetings with the company’s loan advisors. In short, success would be measured by recovered applications and how many of those turn into scheduled appointments with loan officers, indicating a revived interest in obtaining a loan.
Strategy
Majibu Africa’s strategy centered on timely and personalized outreach through a channel their customers already trust and use daily: WhatsApp. Given WhatsApp’s ubiquity among the target audience, the team chose it as the ideal medium to reconnect with prospects who left the application process. The idea was to engage customers immediately at the moment of drop-off – before they forgot about the loan or went to a competitor – and guide them back on track. To achieve this at scale, Majibu leveraged an AI-driven conversational approach. This would allow the company to provide instant answers and support to each prospect, 24/7, without requiring a human agent to step in for every interaction. In essence, the strategy was to combine the speed of automation, the personal touch of messaging, and the intelligence of AI to win back wavering customers.
Solution
Majibu Africa implemented an AI-powered WhatsApp engagement solution that seamlessly integrated with its online loan application system. The solution worked proactively to reclaim dropped-off leads through several key capabilities:
Real-time trigger on drop-off:
The moment an applicant stopped short of submitting their loan application, a WhatsApp message was automatically sent to them. This message was personalized – greeting the person by name and referencing their ongoing loan application – to remind and encourage them to continue. Timing was critical: reaching out within minutes of abandonment kept Majibu front-of-mind for the prospect.
AI chatbot for Q&A:
Each WhatsApp outreach included access to an intelligent chatbot that could converse naturally with the lead. Powered by AI, the chatbot could understand and answer the applicant’s questions in real time. Whether the prospect was confused about required documents, unsure about loan terms, or had concerns about repayment, the AI could address these queries instantly. This on-demand assistance mimicked a live agent, reducing the friction and uncertainty that often cause customers to give up on applications.
Guided return path:
The system didn’t just answer questions – it actively guided prospects on what to do next. Within the WhatsApp chat, applicants received a convenient link back to their partially completed loan application, as well as the option to schedule a meeting with a Majibu loan advisor for further help. By providing a direct route to either finish the application online or book an appointment, the solution catered to different comfort levels. Prospects who felt confident could resume the digital application seamlessly, while those who preferred human interaction could quickly set up a consultation, all through the WhatsApp interface.
This AI-powered WhatsApp system operated around the clock, ensuring that even after business hours or on weekends, dropped-off leads were promptly nurtured. The personalized yet automated nature of the solution meant every abandoned applicant got timely attention and answers, without taxing Majibu Africa’s team.
Results
The deployment of the WhatsApp re-engagement program produced impressive, quantifiable results. Majibu Africa successfully recovered an average of 8.7% of the previously lost leads each month through the automated follow-ups. In practical terms, this meant that out of the thousands of prospects abandoning their applications, hundreds were reactivated and brought back into the pipeline. These reengaged customers translated directly into tangible sales opportunities – with over 700 additional meetings being booked monthly between interested loan applicants and Majibu’s loan advisors.
Crucially, the 8.7% recovery rate landed right in the middle of the targeted 8–10% range, validating the effectiveness of the chosen strategy. Every month, what would have been 700+ “gone cold” leads were instead converting into live conversations with the sales team. This not only improved Majibu’s conversion metrics on paper, but also meant a significant number of extra customers got the financing help they initially sought, thanks to the timely intervention.
Business Impact
Beyond the immediate numerical wins, Majibu Africa’s business saw broader, strategic benefits from the WhatsApp re-engagement initiative. First, the company’s sales pipeline grew noticeably larger. By pulling back nearly 9% of potential borrowers who would have been lost, Majibu filled its funnel with more qualified prospects, leading to a higher volume of loan disbursals down the line. Second, the engagement level of leads improved significantly. Prospects who might have slipped away were now interacting actively with the company – asking questions, getting answers, and feeling guided rather than forgotten. This personalized follow-up not only rescued deals but also built goodwill and trust; customers appreciated the outreach and support, making them more likely to choose Majibu for their financing needs.
Finally, the solution introduced a new level of operational scalability to Majibu’s customer acquisition process. The AI-driven WhatsApp system handled the surge of follow-up conversations automatically, without requiring a proportional increase in staff. As Majibu Africa continues to grow, this automated approach can easily scale to engage more applicants, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks due to resource constraints. In sum, the initiative not only boosted short-term conversions, but also set up a sustainable model for engaging and converting leads, positioning Majibu Africa for accelerated growth in the competitive lending market.
“Sharpen AI helped us reconnect with customers we thought we’d lost. The WhatsApp automation not only boosted conversions but made our borrowers feel genuinely supported — it’s scaling with heart.”
Janiz Z.
Majibu Africa