RainFin Pty Ltd (RainFin), a South African money lending market place partially-owned by Barclays Plc, has recently announced that it has doubled its daily lending to about ZAR 1 million (USD 73,000) on a year to year basis in August 2015, a result that has encouraged the company to extend its businesses to Zambia and Kenya.
The announcement was done by RainFin’s Founder and CEO, Sean Emery, during its speech in the 7th Annual Retail Banking Africa Conference recently held in Johannesburg where he explained that the company has correctly tapped the needs of the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and predicted further growth for the coming years.
Emery added that in order to take advantage of the SMEs’ potential, RainFin will expand the volume of loans by using non-active capital placed at institutions as insurers seeking higher returns than bonds.
In Zambia, SMEs represent a big potential since local commercial banks manage an average aggregate exposure of 18% of loans to SMEs of the total lending according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
This generates a lending gap of up to USD 170 billion annually, with more than 30 million Zambian SMEs which represent 70% of the economy and 88% of employment, according to a research from the Bank of Zambia (BOZ).
RainFin is planning to tap Barclays’ network in the retail banking market in Zambia, where it has been operating for over 100 years totaling 70 offices and 1,204 employed people so far according to the company’s website.
