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Thirty thousand drivers have been targeted to benefit from accessible and flexible credit solutions by the end of the year, under a partnership agreement between Bolt, Ghana’s leading ride-hailing platform, and Fido Credit, a digital finance provider.
Under the partnership between two organisations which was launched in Accra on Thursday, drivers on the Bolt platform could apply for loans as business users without the need to submit formal proof of business ownership.
The loan that would be provided for the 30, 000 drivers ranges between GH¢1,500 and GH¢10,000.
The loan offer comes with several built-in incentives, which include GH¢35 cashback for drivers who repay their first loan, and a commission for those who refer others.
Such built-in incentives are to encourage responsible borrowing and promote financial empowerment.
According to the Head of Business Unit, Fido Credit, Mr Joseph Maxwell Appiah, the organisation was excited about the partnership as it aligned with its mission of making financial empowerment accessible to everyone, especially workers in the informal sector.
He explained that the only document that Fido Credit would require from the drivers was their National Identification Card (Ghana Card) and their pictures for them to benefit from the loan offer.
Mr Appiah said drivers who wanted to benefit from the loan offer had to register with Bolt for a month for the organisation to evaluate their transactions with the ride-hailing platform.
He stated that the drivers would be charged an interest rate of 0.36 per cent on the loan provided, and they would not be required to pay the full loan interest at once.
In addition, Mr Appiah indicated that an amount of GH¢25 million had been disbursed to drivers by Fido Credit as at last month under the partnership with positive feedback received from drivers, as none of them had defaulted in the payment of the loan provided.
For his part, the Operation Lead, Bolt Ghana, Mr Sumaila Ali, underlined that the partnership with Fido Credit was as a result of the challenges that drivers in country faced in having access to credit solution to help in their short-term and long-term needs.
He added that the Bolt decided to partner with Fido Credit due to its commitment to financial inclusion and target audience for the loan offer, adding that over 2,400 Bolt drivers had benefited from it.
“From our perspective, we are not looking at only limiting this partnership to just credit, but we want to see how we can extend it to other verticals within the Bolt family and even beyond the Ghana domain,” Mr Ali elaborated.
