By Onome Amuge
Motor Africa, a mobility & IOT infrastructure startup in Nigeria, and OnePipe, a fintech infrastructure provider, have launched a lending as a service (LaaS) proposition to help mobility entrepreneurs gain access to working capital in the form of an overdraft to finance car repairs, purchase genuine spare parts, vehicle and personal insurance, smart phones, and cash for personal and family welfare support needs.
The lending as a service infrastructure, which utilises hybrid telemetry IOT systems, enables lending partners to create loan products with interest rates and repayment terms, as well as manage credit requests, automatic underwriting, cash disbursement, and repayment collection.
The intelligent repayment collection service enables credit subscribers to make repayments via bank transfer to a dedicated repayment wallet before due dates, failing which the system will automatically disable the engine of the collateralized vehicle and share the geo location with Motor Africa recovery agents in the event of a repayment default.
In addition, the service manages driver repayments to the vehicle owner and provides car maintenance oversights at partnered workshops. It is also backed by a technology, which generates analytical telemetry and remittance income data, assists registered lenders in making informed lending decisions while also managing seamless credit repayments.
Motor Africa, a trade name of envio Logistics Inc, stated that it has activated over 2,000 vehicles already on its platform and is now poised to enable those vehicle owners,who currently use the platform to lease their cars to verified drivers on e-hailing services and local transport services, have access to credit services.
Commenting on the development, Sylvester Chude, co-founder and CEO of envio Logistics Inc, who has been an active participant in the mobility industry, said that cooperating with OnePipe will facilitate automatic payout settlements to vehicle owners and lending partners.
Citing a report by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Chude said commercial mobility in Africa is estimated to be $150 billion and the market was expected to grow at 8.5 per cent between 2018 and 2023.
“Commercial transportation is a crucial service for the growth of any economy, and the role of technology and innovation is essential for its success in Africa,” he stated.
Chude also confirmed that the objective of Motor Africa is to facilitate the participation of financial institutions and individuals in funding the car supply gap in order to increase mobility in Africa.
On its part, OnePipe stated that working with Motor Africa will assist in addressing the challenges African mobility entrepreneurs experience when trying to get working capital financing.
