Vodacom to accelerate financial inclusion with latest lending product

Vodacom Financial Services has launched a new product, VodaLend | Business Cash Advance, to make funds accessible to smaller unregistered businesses in need of short term cash advances.

According to Vodacom, “Business Cash Advance provides funding for partner SMMEs that trade using VodaPay’s POS devices, including VodaPay Max, E-Commerce Switch and VodaPay Chop-Chop QR code. Funding is offered to the SMME based on its monthly turnover and, if accepted, is paid to the company within 24 hours.”

The product offers finance between R3000 and R350 000 to customers using VodaPay point of sale (POS) devices, and Business Cash Advance complements VodaLend’s range of lending products aimed at the SMME sector.

In the words of Vodacom Financial and Digital Services Chief Officer Mariam Cassim, “It often happens that a small business has intra-month cash flow challenges. While the business is liquid over the long-term, occasionally, it finds itself unable to meet short-term cash requirements. This is where our Business Cash Advance product comes into play.”

“Repayments are specifically designed to assist partner SMMEs by being linked to the amount of money the company earns every day. When the company is not trading, no repayments are required,” adds Cassim.

Cassim concludes, “This is another small step by Vodacom Financial Services to further build and stabilise the SMME sector – a key component to long-term growth of our economy. This sector is also vital to job creation in an environment where unemployment is unacceptably high.”

Users of VodaPay’s POS devices planning on using the product must

1. Have been trading for four months or more.
2. Have a monthly turnover of at least R3 000 (collected through the merchant’s wallet, regardless of the acceptance mechanism).
3. Have done ten payment transactions per month on the defined payment rails.

No company registration or VAT numbers are required. Instead, businesses seeking finance must apply via Vodacom’s SMME portal, and from there, merchants can view the financing options on offer. Once the finance is approved, they can take it up whenever it is needed.

VodaPay customers that are not qualified to use the product can also go to the SMME portal, where they are given a dashboard showing what they need to do to qualify. Once qualified, acceptance can be done in under two minutes.