Bradwin Roper, MTN SA chief financial services officer. Photograph by Lesley Moyo.

MTN's Mobile Money (MoMo) has teamed up with bank-tech company JUMO to offer short-term loans to South African entrepreneurs and the informal sector.

The two parties today announced the launch of the Qwikloan platform, which provides short-term loans and aims to promote financial inclusion across the country.

In a statement, the partners say Qwikloan enables MoMo users to obtain small, short-term loans on their mobile phones, ranging from R250 to R10,000, depending on eligibility.

The loans are available to both prepaid and postpaid MoMo registered customers, who have a valid South African ID number. To apply for a loan, customers can use the MTN MoMo App or by placing a USSD call.

Upon approval, monies are placed immediately into the user's MoMo wallet, and repayments are made from the same wallet.

"In these challenging economic times, our goal is to empower South African consumers by offering a reliable alternative with significantly lower interest rates compared to banks,” says Bradwin Roper, chief financial services officer at MTN South Africa.

According to the companies, JUMO's banking technology cuts unit economics, making products more affordable.

“Our work with MTN will support entrepreneurs who need simple, quick access to working capital to grow their businesses. This work demonstrates how partnerships between financial technology companies such as JUMO, and mobile money providers are essential to driving financial inclusion and creating more opportunities for customers to borrow and save conveniently,” says JUMO president, Joe Mucheru.

He adds: “There is even greater potential to grow eligibility and accessibility by introducing bank partners to the initiative. Working with partners to build the infrastructure they need to achieve their goals is what we do.”