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NewsDay

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Tiles For Africa offers credit terms to homeowners

Business
Tiles For Africa has partnered local finance firm, Delight Africa Group to offer a $15 million credit facility per month to homeowners seeking to tile their homes.

Tiles For Africa has partnered local finance firm, Delight Africa Group to offer a $15 million credit facility per month to homeowners seeking to tile their homes.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

Delight Africa Group subsidiary, Delight Finance signed a deal with Tiles For Africa late last month which will see both companies offering credit terms of over 24 months at zero deposit.

Speaking to NewsDay at the launch of the credit scheme in Harare recently, Tiles For Africa managing director Spencer Madziya said they had been wanting to offer such a credit facility for some time.

“They (Delight Africa Group) came on board and said, ‘look Spencer we can assist you as Tiles For Africa to get that credit’. The credit facility is actually 0% deposit and is open to private individuals who have got an income that is coming in every month and we are looking at a 48-hour turnaround to know whether you qualify or you don’t… Delight has got a lot of financial institutions that are on board with them that are prepared to fund them,” he said.

“We are looking at spending at least $15 million a month for credit to approved customers that is for civil servants and private individuals. The $15 million is basically our limit for the month to spend on customers.”

Tiles For Africa does not manufacture the tiles locally, but rather imports every month as the costs to manufacture locally would be significant, NewsDay learnt.

Delight Africa Group president and founder Kevin Musekiwa said almost 60% of their financial muscle comes from local financial firms and as such could cater for needs of clients far beyond a micro-finance level.

“Why we do have that type of financial muscle is that we do have several agreements with several financiers locally, all local financial houses, so an individual can walk in get a quotation of $5 000 and just pay an instalment of about $208 a month and it’s spread over 24 months. So, a $208 deposit, while you are sitting in your house is something that has never been heard of at 0% deposit,” he said.

“When they (Tile For Africa) had enquiries of customers coming in asking for credit they had an overwhelming task to satisfy that market, so we were also looking at partnering different types of suppliers. Why we partnered Tiles For Africa is basically because of the quality of tiles that they provide in the market.”