TechPression

Tag: Loans

  • Tanzania’s minister encourages equipment loans for miners

    Tanzania’s minister encourages equipment loans for miners

    In a bid to enhance mining activities in Tanzania, Minerals Minister Anthony Mavunde urged GF Trucks & Equipment Ltd to broaden its reach and support miners with equipment loans.

    The minister made this statement during the official launch of the company’s new office in Geita Region, a hub for mining operations in Tanzania.

    Minister Mavunde commended GF Trucks & Equipment Ltd for its commitment to bolstering the mining sector by providing essential equipment to miners. He expressed confidence in miners’ honesty and capacity to efficiently use equipment obtained through loans and repay them without issues. The minister emphasized the importance of extending the scope of services to cater to the mining community’s needs.

    Read also: Tanzanian researchers unite to boost sustainable scientific advancement

    Facilitating Mining Activities with a Local Presence

    The newly inaugurated office at the Geita regional gold market marks a significant development for the mining industry. By bringing services closer to the miners, it aims to streamline mining activities, potentially encouraging many more Tanzanians to take part in this crucial sector.

    Minister Mavunde congratulated the company for its dedication to serving miners and improving the region’s economic contributions. This year, Geita Region is tasked with contributing 243 billion Tanzanian Shillings to the government’s coffers, highlighting the significance of such initiatives.

    Salman Karmali, the company’s Marketing Director, shared their plans to expand services to Tanzanians across various zones. In line with the favorable investment climate created by the Sixth-Phase Government, GF Trucks & Equipment Ltd aims to produce 1,500 large trucks at its assembly plant in Kibaha, Coast Region. The company’s commitment to localization is evident as the trucks handed over during the exhibition were locally assembled.

    Supporting the Mining Sector

    During the exhibition, GF Trucks & Equipment Ltd sealed a contract with the State Mining Corporation (STAMICO) for the supply of machines and trucks. Under this agreement, the company will provide equipment and trucks to both large and small-scale miners, supervised by STAMICO.

    Dr. Venance Mwasse, Managing Director of STAMICO, emphasized the need to bring services closer to miners, recognizing the substantial capital required for significant investments in the mining sector.

    Ms. Efrosina Mwanja highlighted the company’s collaborative efforts with miners, providing equipment loans and trucks to support their operations. Such partnerships play a vital role in ensuring the mining industry’s sustainable growth and development.

    As GF Trucks & Equipment Ltd expands its services and presence in Tanzania, it aims to foster a thriving mining sector and contribute to the nation’s economic prosperity. The company’s commitment to localization and supporting miners underscores its dedication to the Sixth-Phase Government’s vision for the country’s mining industry.

    About Tanzania’s Ministry of Minerals

    The Ministry of Mining in the United Republic of Tanzania plays a pivotal role in fostering the growth and advancement of the country’s mining sectors. Originally under the Ministry of Energy, it was subsequently separated during a strategic Cabinet reshuffle orchestrated by President John Pombe Magufuli. 

    This separation underscores the government’s commitment to providing focused attention and resources to the mining industry, recognizing its significant contribution to the nation’s economy.

    On the 7th of October, 2017, a significant development occurred in the United Republic of Tanzania as the President introduced an amendment to the Notice on the assignment of Ministerial Functions (Instrument) No. 144, originally issued on the 22nd of April, 2016. This amendment marked the creation of the Ministry of Minerals, a pivotal entity with a comprehensive mandate aimed at shaping the nation’s mining sector and related areas.

    The Ministry of Mining is dedicated to creating an enabling environment for sustainable mining practices and ensuring that this critical sector continues to thrive and benefit the nation.

  • Moniepoint launches loans to help African businesses grow

    Moniepoint launches loans to help African businesses grow

    Moniepoint, a major African Fintech platform has created Working financial Loans aimed at assisting merchants in resolving financial difficulties and keeping their businesses operational and growing.

    The Working Capital Loans product provides companies with a line of credit that is proportional to the amount of capital (or stake) they have invested in the company. 

    These loans are considered to be of the short- to medium-term variety, with terms ranging from seven to one hundred and twenty days and being easily, and in some cases automatically, renewable.

    Any merchant who operates his company through his Moniepoint account will have the ability to apply for and gain access to a line of credit that is proportional to the amount of business that is processed through the Moniepoint account.

    Read also: SeamlessHR partners with Moniepoint to transform payroll management in Nigeria

    Why is this so important

    According to many reports, access to finance continues to be one of the most significant challenges that African small businesses must contend with, which makes it more likely for them to be unable to invest in and expand their operations.

    These companies are unable to replenish their inventory and therefore cannot scale as they should since they do not have access to sufficient working capital loans.

    The new product gives businesses access to a revolving credit facility, which they can use for purchasing additional inventory and short-term working capital for smooth business operations. This new product solves two major problems for businesses: providing them with convenient access to affordable credit whenever they require it, as well as providing them with convenient access to the credit itself.

    Remarks from the executives of business loans

    Vice President of Business Loans Tobi Amira talked about the start and said: “We are conscious of the fact that MSMEs are the backbone of African economies and we are always looking for new ways to help African businesses have access to solutions and tools that accelerate their growth.

    As part of our commitment to partnering with our merchants to help them grow, we are willing to provide a percentage capital contribution as a line of credit for the daily running of our partners’ businesses. As at the end of June, we had disbursed $3.3million, with a gross loan portfolio value of $2.4 million.”

    Nigeria’s Moniepoint hires Capital One MVP Pawel Swiatek as COO

    About Moniepoint

    Moniepoint Inc. is a financial technology firm that was established in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike. The company’s primary mission is to offer various financial solutions to companies.

    By granting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to banking services, Moniepoint has developed a one-of-a-kind business model with the dual goals of promoting financial inclusion and improving people’s standard of living.

    Moniepoint imposes a fee of only 0.5% on withdrawals of up to N20,000 when the total amount is less than that. Moniepoint imposes a standard fee of N100 on all transactions that are greater than N20,000. The cost of sending money through Moniepoint is always the same, at a fixed rate of N20.

    Both OPay PoS and Moniepoint PoS are extremely straightforward to obtain, and both incur the same 0.5% fee for each transaction that is subject to a ceiling of 100 Naira. In terms of both customer service and long-term reliability, Moniepoint is just marginally superior to Opay.

    Out of a total of 1.5 million POS agents in the country, the financial technology company has authority over 563,262 of them. Another agency banking powerhouse, MoniePoint, has 303,946 point-of-sale (POS) agents located all over the United States. This gives them the second-largest network in the industry.

    After the deployment of the latest POS app update, which was given the version number 1.3, the Moniepoint POS terminal has become one of the most secure POS terminals that are currently available in Nigeria.

  • Sycamore, Nigerian fintech simplify loans, investments

    Sycamore, Nigerian fintech simplify loans, investments

    In the African fintech space, digital lending has been one of the fast-growing sectors, which comes with a lot of challenges, from finding lenders to recovery issues and others. To change the narrative, Sycamore, a p2p platform, was established to connect lenders to borrowers by letting people access good investments and loans.

    Speaking in an interview with Techpression, Babatunde Akin-Moses, the Sycamore founder/CEO, revealed that this is one of the problems they are currently solving with a product called Loan Friends. Basically, it enables people to lend and borrow money from their friends with a very high assurance of getting their money back. He explained that “a lot of people, you know, lend money to their friends, and it’s trouble to get it back, so Loan Friends is making that easy.”

    Read also: Lulalend secures $35 million to serve SA business with loans

    How does Sycamore come about?

    The idea started in Lagos business school, where him and his friends were initially talking about the problems over lunch, the fact that it was so hard for the small business to get access to finance quickly. “And at the time, we didn’t think of it as a business. We were just talking about the problem, and then we inquired and did a case study and read about some companies and how a problem was being solved in China using technology.” 

    This research gave them the idea that they could also replicate the same in Nigeria. The next thing they could think of was how they were going to get the funding to give out credit. However, in their research, they stumbled upon a peer-to-peer lending model. “Essentially, we could provide a platform for lenders and borrowers where we can serve as an intermediary platform and that’s what we became with a very huge focus on technology from the start.”

    Speaking further, Babatunde explained that the name “Sycamore” was inspired by the Bible, from the story of Zacchaeus, a short guy who had to climb a Sycamore tree to see Jesus in a crowded place. “So that became like a metaphor of a running cry of an upliftment. So we want to uplift people financially, just the way the Sycamore uplifted Zacchaeus in the bible.” he added.

    Sycamore plans and progress so far

    According to the founder, in March, the startup will be four years old, and they hope to increase their presence in more states in Nigeria as they are looking to go to other African or possibly even European countries by 2024. “At the moment, we are only in like 10 states in Nigeria, and in 2024 we want to go beyond Nigeria like some African countries, Canada and the UK because we are targeting countries where a lot of Nigerians are based.”

    Transactions over their platform last year were over 10 million dollars, and they are looking to triple that amount this year.

    The fintech space in Nigeria is really growing. However, there is a need to develop global stability and solutions.

    Challenges faced as a digital lender

    Like every other entrepreneur, they have several challenges, from getting capital to starting and even building the platform. Another challenge initially was having access to good people to join and believe in their future because it’s really hard for talented people with low budgets, as most people would want to work for a big company. 

    Moreover, the general issue of any credit space is dealing with borrowers, “thou it has improved, but a better credit culture is still needed, which involves recovering money using a lot of technology.” In terms of recovering funds back from people, he affirmed that one of the strategies that have helped them is doing things the right way and being patient. Their experienced team also make use of best industrial practices by not being in a hurry to get their funds back.

    There is a system that is being worked on in the finance sector called “Open Banking”, basically it’s about the banks writing their APIs with common standards. “It’s going to be very easy for the banking system to communicate. It’s going to be very easy for people to build products that can do amazing stuff. So, for example, when the banks have common API standards, life will be a lot easier for lenders because if you don’t have money in Bank A, It will be easy to debit bank B as long as your BVN is the same.” It’s going to make lending and saving a lot easier. Making this work requires government support.

    Safaricom Announces Reduction Of Loans’ Fee

    Other issues from the Fintech space

    Furthermore, on the government’s part, easy security would mean that startups can do business in more states freely when everywhere is safe, and then fintech can cover more states. Another is infrastructure, the sector spends a lot of money on power, transport and the like.

    Also, on Cross-border collaboration with respect to the new African Free Trade Zone. Free trade legislation and agreement are good development in African countries, but there is a question of implementation. The system that is being worked on is called PAPSS Pan-African Payments Settlement Scheme. It will be easy to transact within African countries.

    Political will and willingness to cooperate among the African countries to a common standard are the challenges that are needed to address.

    Regarding regulation, he added that it is good as CBN tries to regulate the financial industries. However, he believes that the CBN shouldn’t be doing much business but should support the industry players’ products, and there should be more collaboration. If he was the CBN governor, his approach to things should be “more experimentation, less business, less banning, more studies, more empowerment, more embracing of ideas.”

    What to know about Babatunde Akin-Moses, Sycamore CEO

    As an economics graduate, he started his career in consulting at Shell as a Contracts NYSC staff, and later he went to KPMG and PwC, before he later went for his MBA at Lagos business school. 

    Aside from being a writer, he is a Nigerian that is very passionate about Nigerian and Africa. He also likes to promote those ideas and encourage young people to do their best.

  • Lulalend secures $35 million to serve SA business with loans

    Lulalend secures $35 million to serve SA business with loans

    In order to introduce its banking products, Lulalend, a South African digital lender firm that offers a range of loans to underserved small and medium-sized businesses, has acquired $35 million in Series B funding.

    The funding round was led by Lightrock, a worldwide impact investor. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Quona Capital led its $6.5 million Series A round, and new investors included DEG, Triodos Investment Management, and Women’s World Banking.

    Lulalend will use the funding to grow its loan book, expand its new product to other markets, and invest in technology and talent to accelerate the rollout of its new digital business banking platform.

    The launch of the digital bank, including marketing, will receive a large portion of this cash, according to Trevor Gosling, CEO of Lulalend. For the $35 million needed to fund our markets, we can raise more than $200 million in debt.

    Read also: Safaricom Announces Reduction Of Loans’ Fee

    Lulalend intends to significantly strengthen its services in accordance with the lending institutions’ policies regarding money.

    Although fintechs are known to start out by unbundling financial services for distinctiveness from banks through the process of rearrangement with models similar to banks in their developmental stage, Trevor Gosling explains that the launch is committed to introducing customers to realistic opportunities associated with financial services formed during the pandemic.

    Gosling and Neil Welman formed the company. “We recognized that improving credit availability is just one of the things we can do for our firms because we have more time to think about how to engage with our clients and understand their needs and challenges. We built our virtual bank. We currently manage cash flow from start to finish for businesses since they need financial access.”

    Lulalend’s achievements

    Lulalend, the first automated online business funding source, was established in 2014 with the goal of making cash flow management for business owners simpler. The company’s stockholders include people like Neil Welman (CTO), Alexander Schuetz, IFC, Quona, Hallman Holding International, Accion, Team Africa Ventures, Newid Capital, Lutz Seebacher, and its staff.

    It is officially listed as a South African SME Finance Association member. Lulalend has created ad hoc credit solutions for its partners over the past three years, including telecommunications provider Vodacom, fintech company Yoco, and an e-commerce behemoth. Additionally, it takes part in a credit distribution plan that has reportedly had some degree of effectiveness.

    Gosling claims that what sets Lulalend apart from rivals is its success and speed in disbursing loans and setting up bank accounts by providing ongoing support services to its consumers. He said this in order to make his statement.

    According to a statement from the corporation, it has distributed billions of rand to small businesses all around South Africa.

    Since its debut in 2014, Lulalend has raised $35 million in a Series B round headed by global impact investor Lightrock, with contributions from new investors including the German development finance institution DEG, Triodos Investment Management, and Women’s World Banking, as well as its $6.5 million Series A round’s lead investors, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Quona Capital.

    TeamApt rebrands, becomes Moniepoint to support African SMEs

    What to know about Lightrock


    Lightrock is a global private equity platform that invests in companies that benefit people and the environment. Over the next decade, Lightrock hopes to develop and mainstream impact investing across asset classes using its pioneering position and knowledge. “An impact mindset on global megatrends, pioneering knowledge, and deep local context enable us to uncover and nurture scalable, high-impact company solutions to global challenges and build risk- and return-balanced portfolios.”

    Prince Max von Liechtenstein, Founder, and Chairman said “I believe growth, technology, and effect will become even more significant. I am eager to drive this development with Lightrock and contribute to a more sustainable capitalism.”

    Lightrock, which has its global offices in London, has a diverse staff of more than 90 private equity professionals, 40% of whom are women, from more than 14 different nations on four continents. They speak more than 20 languages fluently and have a plethora of experience in impact investment, as well as a demonstrated history of success in leadership, entrepreneurship, and portfolio management. 

    The Board of Directors of Lightrock, a corporation run by managing partner and CEO Pal Erik Sjatil, is presided over by Prince Max von Liechtenstein. The impact investing efforts at LGT was initiated in 2009 by Prince Max von Liechtenstein.