Last week Wednesday, we got our hands on a new loan app named PalmCredit. It turns out the people behind it are named Transsnet, a company that says its brands include Palmpay and Palmsave. These are new names on the block. Trannsnet is a subsidiary of Transsion Holdings, the umbrella corporation behind TECNO Mobile, Infinix Mobility and itel Mobile.
More accurately, Transsnet is a partnership between Transsion and another company named NetEase. The latter is a Chinese company that provides games, email, search and online entertainment.
What Is PalmCredit?
Simply put, PalmCredit provides loans to its users by letting them build their credit score over a period of time. It is similar to how PayLater works.
Transsnet Financial say they have a mission to make finance easy and accessible across Africa. It is the same Africa-centric focus that Transsion has for mobile phones, but this time, the goal is to provide easy loans to users.
Already, Transsion has the feature phone and smartphone markets in Africa on lock-down. Their music app, BoomPlay Music, is also doing well in Africa. And now, Trannsnet’s credit app is stepping into the same field that PayLater, Branch and a number of other loan apps are playing in.
First Impressions Of PalmCredit Mobile App
The user experience with the app is good. It requires you to login using your mobile number or your Facebook account, after which, you need to provide some details, and get a credit score, before you can apply for your first loan.
It is expected that when the Palm Credit mobile app is officially thrown open to the public, it will be pre-installed on all TECNO, Infinix and itel smartphones, the same way BoomPlay Music is. This is a move that will give it an edge in the industry, especially when you consider that these three brands own more than 50% of the Africa’s smartphone market.
Africa’s Fintech Landscape
While PalmCredit mobile app provides loans, PalmSave is an app that looks set to go up against apps like PiggyBank and CowryWise. The 3rd Trannsnet brand, PalmPay, will be a payment platform.
Transsion has conquered hardware and now looks fully set to carve a chunk of the fintech space in Africa for itself through Trannsnet Financials. The last one year has seen a handful of fintech apps spring up across Africa. Most of them are loan providers. Access to credit has been a huge problem on the continent, especially as banks have largely turned up their noses to SMEs and individuals.
African fintech apps and services have risen up to fill that huge gap left unattended by banks. If past trends is anything to go by, however, quite a number of these loan services will hit the rocks. When the dust has cleared, we wonder who and who will be left standing.
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