A new online loan scheme!

ROMA – If you are a member of Phuthalichaba, you can now sit comfortably on your couch at home and apply for a loan. In a short time, you will get an SMS telling you that some money has been deposited into your account.

“This is one of the brilliant systems already in use by Phuthalichaba,” Tebello Tjapela, the CEO of the cooperative under the National University of Lesotho (NUL) Innovation Hub, told thepost.

When you log into Phuthalichaba’s online loaning system, you just apply for the amount you want as along as it meets the requirements. You even choose how long it will take you to repay the loan.

The system then, automatically, generates the repayment (installment) schedule for you! It tells you how much you will pay each month until you finish and how much interest you will give back to Phuthalichaba.
You can play around with amounts and repayment periods until you find what suits you!

When Phuthalichaba entered the scene, it promised to be the most innovative financial institution in Lesotho.

With membership now at more than 700 and savings approaching a gigantic M2 000 000, Phuthalichaba is on its way towards the dream! Phuthalichaba’s achievements are surprising because it’s just a few dozen months old.

More interesting is the recently installed online system that helps members obtain loans from the comfort of their homes. To appreciate how it works, let’s start the journey from the beginning.

Your friend tells you about Phuthalichaba, this brilliant financial cooperative created by the NUL Innovation Hub. You learn that the reasons for its existence are to create a culture of savings among Basotho and to invest in innovative Lesotho businesses.

You decide you cannot allow such a revolution bypass you! So you join the bandwagon. You visit their website at www.phuthalichaba.com.

“Wow!” you say as you discover a whole new world you didn’t know existed! Then you click “register.” They tell you that you should at least have two things saved in a digital format: (a) a proof of payment of M150, M100 for a share and M50 for registration, (b) a copy of your ID or passport.

You prepare these and come back. Then you are asked to say if you are an individual, a company, a sole trader, or an association. That is because the documents you will be required to submit depends on who you are. Let’s say you are an individual.

Then you have to say if you are at least 18 years old or not. If not, you can still be a member but you will be required to provide the details of your guardian. You will then enter your contact information, banking information, savings information, and then upload the pictures of your ID and proof of payment.

It’s a one-stop shop. If you are successfully registered, you receive a membership number generated automatically by the online system in your email.

Oops! You are now a member of the most innovative financial institution Lesotho has ever seen!

Congratulations!

This is what will happen next. During registration, you have to select how much money should be drawn automatically from your bank account, every month. Remember, the primary aim is to encourage a culture of savings among Basotho.

We can no longer afford to live from month to month anymore. By saving a minimum of just M50 a month, you will be surprised how much you will accumulate in the next months and years.
Now it’s time to borrow.

If you were to borrow elsewhere, you are either presented with mind-boggling interest rates, elitist requirements, or plain daylight robbery. Anything that comes close to Phuthalichaba in low interest rates comes with an enormously boring paperwork after paperwork and poor, 20th century, service delivery.

So you stick with Phuthalichaba.

Plus you are taking a loan in a business that is, wait for it… “owned by you”! In any other business, you would just be enriching some folks you neither know, nor are you known by them! You are now given some login details.

Once you are in, goodness, another world opens up! Only you, the member, can see this world.

Among the interesting things you find is an online loan application form. You enter the amount you want to borrow and the period of installment and a repayment schedule is generated for you, telling you how much you will pay each month till you are done.

You then submit!

Your submission will be approved in a two-stage process by the management where your details are confirmed. It will then be approved by the Credit Committee of the cooperative. All these approvals happen online.

No paperwork.

Once approved by the committee, you will then read and sign a loan agreement, again online, by clicking to show that you agree. Once that is done, you will hear a bip on your phone in a short time! The money has been deposited directly into your account. Don’t worry about carrying the repayment money to Phuthalichaba’s offices.

Nope!
Phuthalichaba will start pulling monthly installments directly from your bank account. Remember, no one handles paper or cash at Phuthalichaba!

Own Correspondent