Amole, a mobile wallet app developed by Moneta Technologies, is set to launch a digital micro-lending services, allowing users to take out loans of as much as 100,000 Br (about $2,300) through electronic devices in Ethiopia.
According to a report in the Fortune, the service will cover both individual and business loans in its bucket and an analytical tool that reviews borrowers’ transaction history to conduct credit appraisal. For businesses, a “buy now, pay later” arrangement will be available through which proprietors can purchase goods and stock through the digital app’s financing. For this segment, the loans can amount up to a couple of million Birr.
Amole is a digital wallet launched three years ago in partnership with Dashen Bank. It has 2.1 million unique users, providing various digital payment solutions such as facilitating payments for utilities, airtime top-up, and payments for retail services.
In April this year, Moneta launched an international e-commerce gateway. Currently, the service is being integrated with 10 merchants to receive international payments through the gateway available with Dashen Bank. As part of its payment infrastructure expansion, Amole partnered with Flutterwave, a fintech company founded by Nigerians and based in the US, to introduce remittance inflow through its wallet.
Over 232 million Br in payments circulated over Amole in the past two years, with the digital wallet’s overall ecosystem amounting to 7.3 billion Br. The total number of transactions made over the service has reached over three million through a mobile app, web app, USSD, and Telegram bot combined.
Amole’s CEO, Yemiru Chanyalew, CEO, told Fortune that a 85pc decline in transactions was recorded following the breakout of COVID-19 in Ethiopia. The majority of payments made before the pandemic were related to sports, entertainment, school, and retail, all of which stagnated after the first case was recorded in March 2020. Due to this, Amole is diversifying its interest areas and shifting its focus toward e-commerce and e-delivery markets.
Moneta’s digital lending service is scheduled for launch in a couple of months.
“Amole is likely to kick off the services by providing business loans as they are less challenging in terms of establishing accountability, the sources disclosed. Credit analysis, scoring appraisal, and disbursement are all to be done digitally within minutes… Although it has yet to be decided, the interest rates are expected to be far below what is offered by banks and microfinance institutions, which is as high as 20 percent,” states Fortune.
Digital micro-lending is crucial in availing financial services to those who would have otherwise been unable to take out loans, besides the agility and convenience brought by the services.
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