Common Questions

No. The BCI is a Readiness Indicator that measures how prepared your business looks to lenders, buyers, and investors; it does not use credit bureau data and does not predict default. A lender may still check your CRB status separately.

About 12 minutes. There are 60 questions across ten sections, all answerable by the person who runs the business, with no documents required.

Yes, completely. Your answers are not stored unless you choose to contact us afterwards. The paid service is the verified assessment, which is separate and optional.

Your score is capped when a condition that ends deals in practice is present, such as missing business registration, missing tax registration, or an unresolved default. The result screen names the cap, shows your uncapped score, and the gap between the two is the exact value of fixing that one issue.

It means you run a real, transactable business with specific, fixable gaps. Counterparties will engage you, usually with conditions such as security, shorter payment terms, or smaller first orders, and your pillar scores show exactly which gaps to close to reach the Established band.

There is no universal threshold, because every lender applies its own criteria; the BCI is not used by banks to decide. As a rule of thumb, businesses in the Established band (60 to 79) match what standard working capital facilities expect, while Foundational businesses (20 to 39) typically face an unassessable file rather than a rejection on merit.

Yes, and arguably most of all. The assessment credits informal-friendly evidence, such as consistent rent and utility payments where no loan history exists, and mobile money tills are treated as full equivalents of bank accounts. A low score with a clear list of next steps is worth more than no picture at all.

You can, and you would be spending 12 minutes to mislead yourself. Nothing is awarded for a high score; the value is the accuracy of the gap list. When a real counterparty assesses you, they verify, and the gap between claim and evidence costs more then.

The BCI is the proprietary assessment framework of ASAP Information Services Limited, a Nairobi-based business intelligence, due diligence and compliance firm, published on BizInfo Africa. It reflects over 16 years of due diligence practice across East Africa.

The calculator is self-reported and free; the Enhanced Evaluation is evidence-based and professional. In the enhanced version, ASAP Inform verifies your answers against registries, credit bureau records, references and documents, producing a report a counterparty can actually rely on.

Nothing leaves your browser. The calculator runs entirely on your device; your answers and your result are not transmitted to us, not stored on our servers, and not visible to anyone unless you choose to contact us afterwards. Details are in our Privacy Policy.

Start with the capped or weakest pillar; the gap list is ordered by what fixing each is worth. If payment terms or receivables are the weak point, run the Cost of Waiting calculator to price the problem. And when a lender, buyer, or investor needs your position verified rather than self-reported, that is the Enhanced Business Evaluation.

The BCI assesses your whole business the way a lender, buyer, or investor reads it; the AERI assesses one specific capability, whether you can trade across an African border. Exporters should take both, since the AERI blends your business fundamentals into its own score, and a business that cannot run itself cannot export competently no matter how good its paperwork is.