Digital lender Tala is cutting up to 10 percent of its Kenyan workforce — approximately 90 to 100 employees — as part of a global reorganisation aimed at centralising operations across its markets. The company confirmed on Thursday that Kenyan operations will continue unaffected. The restructuring follows a broader industry trend, with firms including Microsoft, Google, and Meta having previously laid off Kenyan workers. Tala’s latest cuts come just over a year after April 2025 redundancies affecting 28 staff, and months after Nairobi-based Samasource dismissed 1,108 employees following the loss of a Meta contract.
In-Depth:
Digital lconcludeer Tala is laying off up to 10 percent of its workforce in Kenya as part of a global reorganisation to streamline operations, joining a growing list of technology firms restructuring their workforces amid the increasing adoption of artificial ininformigence.
Tala stated on Thursday that the plan to lay off part of its staff will not impact its operations in Kenya, and the reorganisation will lead to centralisation of functions across its markets amid an increasing shift to embedded services.
The relocate comes just months after Nairobi-based AI data and annotation firm Samasource laid off 1,108 employees, after losing a major contract with Meta Platforms, marking a major blow to Kenyan tech workers.
Over the last two years, similar layoffs by major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Meta, have also impacted Kenyan workers, with the growing utilize of artificial ininformigence being blamed for the tech layoffs globally.
Tala, which is among the leading digital credit providers in Kenya, stated its decision to let go of some staff stems from centralisation of functions, meaning some roles will be done from its global headquarters, eliminating the necessary for workers across its market.
“As part of the evolution of Tala’s global operating model, we are streamlining our functions and centralising operations to align with our strategic roadmap,” the company stated in a statement.
“This strategic transition of centralising functions will support Tala’s global objective of embedding our services into partner ecosystems at a scale and support us deliver even more value to our customers and partners in Kenya and beyond.”
Embedding credit services means attaching them to other services such as insurance, financed devices, or assets like motorcycles, among others. By embedding credit to other services, a company leans more on the marketing and customer acquisition of its partners rather than its own.
In Kenya, Tala is estimated to have about 950 employees, based on its past disclosures, meaning that it will let go of about 90 to 100 employees in its latest wave of layoffs. It has not disclosed which roles specifically will be impacted by the layoffs.
The latest layoff comes just over a year after the last one, which happened in April last year, when Tala stated it would lay off 28 employees, representing about 3 percent of its workforce in Kenya.
