A local company, Globalhood Eco Technologies, has set up a credit bureau to assist in the protection of credit lenders and higher purchase retailers who have been hard hit by bad debts and non-performing loans blamed on the prevailing economic meltdown. BATANAI MUTASA OWN CORRESPONDENT
Credit bureaus are set up to collect individuals, corporates and other legal entities’ credit data from a variety of sources, consolidate the information into profiles and make it available on request to subscribers.
While there has been more appetite to borrow since the return of credit facilities in the country, there is no active credit bureau in Bulawayo.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya said the apex bank was working on a national credit bureau to minimise bad debts in the banking sector at a Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries annual conference in July this year.
Mangudya revealed that non-performing loans had risen from 1,6% in 2009 to 18,5% ($705 million) as at June 2014.
He added that the level of non-performing loans had been a hindrance to economic stability and growth of global economies.
Globalhood founder Alvin Vafana said his firm had seen it fit to assist the financial sector, including credit lenders and higher purchase retailers, by launching a credit bureau in Bulawayo.
Vafana said the scope and scale of the market was so huge that the central bank could regulate lending in microfinance institutions and banks, but there were other players like credit retailers and estate agents who could facilitate multi-borrowing.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The bureau launched its operations at a local hotel on August 14 and is in the process of building its client base.
“We started our operations in Bulawayo because we are based here, but we have a vision to expand further.
“At the moment we already have huge customers like Nandico finance, Tilus supermarket, Tretmar and Portify finance which proves our service is essential,” he said.
Vafana added that the bureau would offer debtors an incentive to pay bills on time because it could be used as a reference to support future loan and credit applications even where they did not have required collateral.
Zimbabwe Association of Micro Finance Institutions Executive director Godfrey Chitambo (Sr) said Bulawayo has been lagging behind in referring to credit bureaux before extending borrowing lines to people, but the setting up of a local agency would improve the current situation.
“Globalhood is the only credit bureau we are aware of in Bulawayo and when they came to us we supported them because our aim is to preserve the positive image of microfinance companies by protecting people from over-borrowing,” he said.
“This means a person cannot blame us when at the end of the month all their money is gobbled up by creditors since we can limit their borrowing at source.”
