Free loan tools
How much can I afford to borrow?
Lenders decide how much they are willing to lend. Only you can decide how much you can repay. Start here, before anybody makes you an offer.
Left each month after essentials and current loans
TZS 180,000
A safe installment (half of what is left)
TZS 90,000
Loan that installment repays
TZS 797,693
At the limit — using 70% of what is left, TZS 126,000 a month — the same terms would repay about TZS 1,116,770. That leaves almost nothing for a month when income is late or a child falls ill, which is the month most defaults begin. With the safe installment, loan repayments would take 22% of your monthly income.
Everything is worked out on your own phone or computer. Nothing you type here is saved or sent to Kopesha or to any lender. Kopesha does not lend money; these tools are for checking offers from lenders, not an offer of credit.
Why half of what is left
The calculator suggests committing no more than half of the money left after your essentials and existing loans. It is a rule of thumb, not a law, and it is deliberately cautious. The half you keep is what absorbs the ordinary shocks: a customer who pays late, a funeral contribution, a hospital visit, a month when the rains come late and nobody buys. A repayment plan that only works in a normal month will, sooner or later, meet a month that is not normal.
Counting income honestly
Use the money that actually reaches you, not your gross salary or your best month's sales. If you run a shop, a boda boda or a market stall, look back over the last three to six months and take the weakest one. If you farm, remember that income may arrive once or twice a year while the loan wants paying every month — plan the installments you can meet from savings between harvests, or look for a lender whose schedule follows the season.
Counting spending honestly
Write down what leaves your hands in a real month: rent, food, water and electricity, school fees spread over the year, transport, airtime, what you send to relatives, contributions to a group. Most people underestimate this number by a fifth or more the first time. If the result says you have nothing left, the calculator has done its job — a loan on those terms would have to be repaid out of money you already need.
What a lender will look at
A careful lender asks the same questions: what comes in, what goes out, what you already owe. Being able to show this worked out — and to ask for a smaller loan or a longer term that fits it — is one of the most persuasive things a borrower can bring to a meeting. It also protects you from a lender who offers more than you need because a bigger loan earns them more interest.
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Written and checked by the Kopesha team · Last reviewed 29 September 2026 · How we check our numbers