Adekemi Akande works with MilaGold Business Services, a startup in Ikeja, Lagos with five employees. Her dream is to become a chartered accountant, and as such, she has enrolled for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) examination, to hold in November 2019. However, her dream requires funding, and that’s the problem- she has no clue where the money would come from. Her salary, as is, has been overstretched.
One of her colleagues, Debola Togun advised her to apply for a loan from one of the banks that offer Payday Loans, a short-term facility which lets employees access a certain percentage of their salary before they receive their monthly income. Togun herself had enjoyed this advance a few weeks earlier when she needed to meet an urgent family need. But Akande’s bank does not have any salary advance scheme, so she completely took the idea of her mind.
That was until Togun told her about PayDay Loan by some Nigerian banks, for which she did not need to be a customer of the bank to qualify. All she needed was for her employer to process her salary with Remita.
MilaGold processes the payroll of its employees with Remita Payroll & HR, which also helps the company to remit all statutory payments such as taxes and pension. The salaries of its employees are among the over two million processed with Remita every month.
Today, SystemSpecs, the provider of Remita, has built partnerships with top bank and non-bank lenders across Nigeria, delivering the technology that drives a swift, seamless lending process.
With Remita Data Referencing, partner lenders have been able to expand their loan portfolios and now lend safely to employees of large firms and SMEs that deploy the Remita platform for payroll processing and salary payments.
David Okeme, Divisional Head, Payment Applications and Vertical Markets at SystemSpecs, explains that the company has developed a standardised integration to the Remita Data Referencing service using an Application Payment Interface (API). “With our APIs, as a lender, you have details such as customer’s net salary, payment history, employment history and confirmation of the prospective borrower’s loan profile.”
He added that Remita Data Referencing service guarantees loan repayment for lenders. “Upon notification of a loan disbursement, Remita would be able to debit the amount from the customer’s next salary. Loan repayment is assured as long as the customer is still being paid a salary,” he further assured.
He disclosed that SystemSpecs has collaborated with top lenders including Access Bank, Carbon, Pettycash, Coolbucks, Ibile MFB, Arvo Finance and Credit Wallet to offer the data referencing service to customers.
Other lenders currently utilising the Remita Data Reference Service are PettyCash Nigeria, PayDayhub Online Nigeria, Free Cash Solution, CIT MFB, Devonsley, Happy Partners and Bridge Credit. Motion Yield and Consumer Microfinance Bank complete the list.
The service meets the credit needs of employees, serving as an intersection between them, their employers and lender. Riding on employee consent, the seamless technology credits the customer’s account within a few minutes of application.
“We protect customer data and only data of consenting customers are shared at any point in time,’” Okeme said.
He told BusinessDay that with the Remita Data Referencing service, lenders can provide loans to customers with whom they do not have previous banking relationship and can access real-time confirmation of borrower’s salary and employment status. “There is no more guesswork in decision-making by the lenders,” he said.
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