Leading auto loan services platform Autochek Africa has announced the launch of a dedicated brand-new cars section on its website and mobile app, allowing customers in East and West Africa to access a variety of digital financing options to purchase new cars and trucks from reputable manufacturers.
The offering will provide repayment tenures of up to 60 months and attractive interest rates from leading regional players, such as Ecobank and Kenya’s NCBA Bank, with up to 90% financing, the company said in a Wednesday (Dec. 8) press release.
Commenting on the launch, Autochek Africa’s COO Timi Tope Ologunoye said, “We are excited to partner with financiers and the automotive industry to provide this facility. It is in response to customer feedback to democratize the purchase of brand-new cars through great and affordable financing options.”
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Ologunoye added that financing for new cars and unlocking a new frontier of automotive FinTech are part of the company’s vision to cement its position as a leading auto loan platform in the African region.
Despite a pandemic-induced decline in the overall sales of new cars due to restrictions on production, sales volumes are starting to pick up as economic activities resume. And according to research published in the release, the size of the African automotive market, currently valued at $90 billion in 2020, is expected to increase by 30%, primarily driven by an increase in financing penetration at 10% year on year.
Launched in October 2020, the automotive technology company offers financing options from over 70 banks across the continent. Loan applications are processed within 24 hours, with terms including 15% interest rate for loans that are repayable for a period of between four and five years.
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And so far, the data shows that its business is gaining traction. Since launch, the startup has processed over 46,000 loan applications across its five markets in West and East Africa — Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda — counting over 1,000 dealers in the Autochek network and 15,000-plus certified and financeable vehicles on the Autochek marketplace.
In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Autochek Africa CEO Etop Ikpe explained how the automotive firm facilitates financing for its consumers by sending one application to all the banks in their system, along with consumer’s information and an underwriting analysis on the vehicle cost.
“With traditional loan application systems, you make one application and select the bank you want to apply to. [But] in our case, you make one application, and it goes to all the banks and they have a chance to make you an offer,” Ikpe said, adding that at the end of the day, one application can net as many as 10 to 15 different offers within 30 minutes to 24 hours.
In October, the Lagos-based firm announced that it had secured $13.1 million in seed funding, less than a year after raising $3.4 million in pre-seed in November 2020.
The company earmarked the investment to deepen its footprint in West Africa and expand its footprint across East Africa, following its recent acquisition of Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda, East Africa’s leading online auto marketplace.
The firm also plans to leverage the vast retail network of Japan’s Toyota Tsusho — the company’s subsidiary, Mobility 54, is one of Autochek’s investors — across 46 African countries to further deepen its expansion in the region.
Now, with its brand-new automobile portfolio, the company aims to launch with over 300 new cars listed across all markets by the end of the year, while adding multiple carrier partners on the Autochek platform.
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