Access Financial Services
About Company
HISTORY/EVOLUTION OF SELECT
African Alliance, the majority shareholder of the Select Africa Group, commenced its Unit Trust Business in Eswatini some 20 years ago. This enabled small investors to buy and invest in units of African Alliance’s investment fund. After a while, it became apparent that clients inexplicably were regularly withdrawing funds from the long term investment scheme. Subsequent research indicated that investors were withdrawing funds to fund their short – term borrowing needs, particularly for household expenditure. This gave rise to the strategic decision to start offering short term consumer loans. Thus, the first branch of our microfinance business, Select Africa, was started in 1999.
Within 4 years, our loan book size had swelled to SZL60m in Eswatini. Over time, we expanded operations to other countries. The Lesotho business opened its doors in 2007, the Kenyan business started in late 2008 and the Malawi office opened in 2009. In 2008, the decision was made to centralize all administration and processing functions in Mauritius in a single Business Process Outsourcing hub.
An independent research study conducted in Eswatini in 2007 showed that 38% of Select’s borrowers actually used their micro-loans for housing purposes and not solely for consumption purpose. This prompted Select to start investigating the housing microfinance market as a likely source of business growth.
Following the study, Select’s focus shifted to providing loans for housing requirements. In 2012 Select Malawi entered into a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to provide Construction Technical Assistance (CTA) to Select’s clients wishing to build houses. Thus started the evolution of Select’s housing focus.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
The Select Group expanded its geographical footprint by entering the Ugandan market in June 2019. Trading as Access Financial Services Limited (AFS), AFS provides credit to civil servants via its unique paperless loan origination platform, delivered by our team of field agents, adhering to the philosophy of taking our products to our clients where they live or work, practicing the mantra of “We come to you”.
Access aligns its operations and values to that of the Select Group in which it provides credit to civil servants based on strict affordability parameters and strictly within responsible lending principles. Currently, Access operates in Central region (Kampala), Western region (Mbarara, Kabale, and Fort Portal) as well as in the Eastern region (Mbale, Soroti, and Iganga) and the Northern region (Lira and Gulu).
VISION
Select’s vision is to focus on servicing the un-banked or entry level retail credit market which is often overlooked by the formal banking sector as the clients are deemed too small or too risky. Select provides products, includes housing loans, home improvement credit for housing related projects e.g. Water and Solar, education loans, and retail consumer credit and insurance.
Select Africa’s typical client is employed, yet unable to easily access personal or housing finance through traditional banking channels due to banks aversion to perceived higher risk clients and the inability to mortgage (or attach) properties as security across many countries in Africa. The Company’s primary client base tends strongly towards public sector employees, typically being the largest and most stable formally employee base in markets across Africa. Loan repayments are deducted via payroll (at source), providing for more consistent collections.
