Unilever will triple the number of local retailers who will access goods on credit by December in a plan to boost sale of its products via small and medium businesses.
Unilever’s Customer Development Director Luck Ochieng said the firm targets to have 30,000 retailers on its loan scheme from the current 10,000 among its 60,000 registered dealers.
Unilever uses its traders’ purchasing history to determine whether they qualify for loans and the maximum credit they can access.
Traders are given 17 days to repay the loans without interest.
The firm has partnered with KCB Group and Mastercard, the payments company, to provide the finance and technology respectively.
“The bulk of business is in Nairobi and neighbouring Central region. We are setting up everywhere we have our distributors,” Mr Ochieng told the Business Daily yesterday.
Under the programme called Jaza Duka, the money is loaned to Unilever’s distributors which supply the traders who then repay KCB directly, usually via a mobile money platform.
The plan is aimed at easing the traders’ cash flow troubles that limit their stocks while pushing Unilever’s products and sales.
Mr Ochieng said most retailers get Sh9,000 weekly overdrafts and pay within seven days. Those who pay after 17 days are charged a 3.5 per cent interest rate on the loans.
The initiative uses distribution data from Unilever and analysis by KCB on how much stocks a retailer has bought from the consumer goods maker in the past three months.
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