POSB launches loans available only to OneMoney customers

POSB Zimbabwe has announced a new micro-loan facility for OneMoney account holders called Mobiloans. The loans are akin to what Steward Bank and EcoCash have been doing with their Kashagi loans which were reintroduced last year.

Dial *226# on your @NetOneCellular line now to apply for the instant POSB Mobiloan to buy stationery and smaller provisions. Money is paid directly into your OneMoney account.

*Available to all active @OneMoneyZw account holders.

POSB on Twitter

What is POSB offering

If you are a OneMoney mobile money account holder, POSB is offering a maximum of ZWL$1,500 through its Mobiloans program. The loan is payable in 30 days and we reached out to POSB’s contact centre to find out what the terms of the facility are and we were told:

• Interest Rate is 7%
• Administration fee is 1%
• Self Insurance fee is 3.5%

We were informed that if an individual fails to pay back the loan in the stipulated 30 days, they will get an additional 5% penalty on whatever balance remained. If the loan is not fulfilled in 90 days then POSB will blacklist that individual with the Credit Bureau.

What are the use cases for these loans…

ZWL$1,500 is not a lot of money, it’s about US$12.00 at the auction rate and nearly half that if you are going by the varying street rate. So if you are in a bind and you need cash they could be an option but personally, the interest rates and fees associated are not enticing.

But, if you are in a tight spot that might be a cost worth paying. I tried to give the POSB’s Mobiloans a try for myself by dialling *226# and I got an error that read:

So it looks like you’ll need to have used your wallet in the past three months to qualify for POSB and OneMoney’s micro-loans.

Also, it would be remiss of me not to go back to the Kashagi comparison because it appears that OneMoney is trying to get people to use its service. However, unlike EcoCash, OneMoney doesn’t have a sister company that is a fully-fledged Bank to support a credit facility.

It’ll be interesting to see if this works and if you have applied for POSB’s Mobiloan facility, let me know in the comments below.

You should also check out

• EcoCash & Steward Bank offering customers ZWL$1000 loans in KaShagi part 2
• Podcast On Steward Bank *236# And Kashagi Nano Loans
• Diasporans, you can open a bank account at the airport/border, no branch needed