Citygate Global, a Nigeria-based microfinance institution, recently introduced Monéé, a digital application allowing customers to access financial services such as loans, savings, investments and bill payments via mobile phones. The app also offers fund transfers to and from any bank in Nigeria. For savings, the service pays interest of 6 percent per annum. To get a loan, customers must have an existing debit card with a balance of at least NGN 100 (USD 0.26). These loans range in size from NGN 2,500 (USD 7) to NGN 20,000 (USD 53) with tenors of 2 weeks to 2 months.
The CEO of Citygate, Dr Seun Durojaye reportedly described the loans as carrying “relatively low interest rates compared to what is obtainable among similar products in the Nigerian market today.” He also noted that, via the app, “our specially profiled high net-worth individual customers can instantly access up to NGN 2 million [USD 5,200]” per loan.
Founded in 2007, Citygate has 40 branches across the country serving 28,000 customers, including 21,000 active borrowers as of 2020. It has an asset base of NGN 3 billion (USD 7.9 million) and two subsidiaries, Empire Trust Microfinance Bank and the Citygate Global Growth Empowerment Initiative. Empire Trust was founded in 2014 and has a capital base of NGN 200 million (USD 510,000) as of 2020. The goal of the Citygate Global Growth Empowerment Initiative is to engage people living in rural parts of the country.
By Eha Joshi, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
All Africa article
https://allafrica.com/stories/202012070202.html
Citygate Global homepage
https://www.citygateglobal.com
Monéé homepage
http://monee.ng
Empire Trust Microfinance Bank homepage
http://empiretrustmfb.com
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