Post Bank meets street vendors half way

Keketso Khunonyane

With capital struggles facing small and informal businesses, the Lesotho Post Bank saw a need to come up with a small loan service Khetsi, to help street vendors and community stokvels access interest free loans.

“The loan ranges between M10 and M500,” Post Bank Managing Director; Molefi Leqhaoe said.

He added, “We are going to offer loans to individuals, street vendors and community stokvels. Khetsi is going to help a lot of people especially street vendors to help boost their small businesses.”

The card less product according to Leqhaoe is meant to be hustle free so as to enable vendors to continue with their businesses without going to the bank.

“There is no need for them (street vendors) to come to the bank and join the long queues. They can apply for the loan through their cellphones in their own comfort and have it granted. Once granted, the loans are send directly to their cellphone accounts. It is also imperative to note that the loans are interest free.”

He added that the product also enables account holders to open savings accounts which will be given added interest.

“They will also get the opportunity to save their money in their phones. We will no longer hear different stories of missing money from the mattresses, or the treasurers missing with the money when we speak of stokvels because Khetsi is a money safety solution,” Leqhaoe said.

In an interview with Newsday, one street vendor, Thabang Mohale said that Post Bank came up with a brilliant idea that is going to help most of their businesses and their personal lives.

“Khetsi is going to help us save our monies. Some of us do not know how to save. Most times we spend recklessly and live by hand to mouth, but with the help of Post Bank, everything will go well for us.

Our business will be able to grow with the loans to be offered,” said Mohale.

Another street vendor, ‘Mabofihla Likoti applauded the Lesotho Post Bank for assisting them with loans.

“We struggle a lot. Sometimes you would find that the business is not doing well, or we make some money but we use it for our personal needs which in turn affects the future profitability of the business. Most times we struggle to have money to buy stock and have quit many times only to restart from scratch.”

Likoti added, “For those who have no choice, they opt to borrow money from loan sharks who charge high interest rates. Khetsi is going to help us to easily save every cent we have earned in our businesses.”

“What I like about this mobile wallet is that we do not have to follow long procedure of banks to access loans. All we need do is to access it through our cell phones. In bad times, we know where we will get help and we are grateful,” said Likoti.

Khetsi is officially launched today and it will be available at all Post Bank branches and agents. People can register by dialling *120*222# on their phones or downloading it as an application on Goggle PlayStore, AppStore and Windows Store.