Markets & Finance

Micro-financier Premier Credit in asset loans plan

Micro-lender Premier Credit has entered into an asset financing deal with local manufacturers targeting individuals and small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to grow its clientele.

Under the partnership, customers will acquire goods from selected manufacturers with Premier Credit as the financier. The borrowers will pay the financier in a period of between six months and two years.

The firm said the suppliers it is working with include Poly Tanks, Hot Point Appliances Ltd, Sustainable Energy Solutions and Africa Power Cloud Ltd.

“The asset loan product outlook is very promising because of the convenience it gives clients, especially in accessing assets,” said Premier Credit managing director James Mugambi.

Partnership is restricted

The partnership is restricted to Kenyans with a plan to extend the deal to Uganda and Tanzania where the financier has operations.

Currently, Premier Credit has 24 branches in Kenya, 16 in Uganda and eight in Tanzania. It has 20,000 clients locally, 8,000 in Uganda and 3,000 in Tanzania.

Mr Mugambi said the focus is to diversify the loan book from just offering working capital loans to asset financing. Premier Credit has already signed up over 2, 000 loan accounts and hopes to increase the number to around 10,000 by the third quarter of this year.

This comes at a time it has announced plans to raise Sh2.5 billion to lend to Kenyan SMEs.

The cash will be raised through borrowing from local and international investors.

The firm was started in 2014 by Mr Mugambi and his business partner Tim Carson, the founder of Micro Kenya which rebranded to Micro Africa.