Overview
In a bid to curate investment options that generate cashflow for its members, Twelve partnered with Credit Wallet also known as Princeps Credit System Limited (a micro-lending company and subsidiary of Princeps Holding Limited) to provide its community access to the company’s private short term debt notes.
These short-term debt notes enable micro-lending companies like Credit Wallet to raise funds and on-lend to consumers and SMEs. Credit Wallet lends mainly to public sector workers.
Credit Wallet’s short-term debt notes require a minimum investment amount of N1 million, returning an average interest of 27% pa. on these notes less tax. These factors make them high risk in nature.
Investing at different investment windows within a period of 18 months, members have invested a total of $1.92m in private short-term debt notes from Credit Wallet.
Investment Details
Investment Thesis
Small businesses operating in Nigeria have a hard time sourcing for working capital to grow their businesses. They are typically not qualified to approach the capital market and banks charge them a premium on loans as they are considered high risk entities. Private short-term debt notes provide an avenue for these businesses to raise funds directly from qualified investors without going through the capital market or banks.
Qualified Investors get the opportunity to earn cashflow with their investing activities. With a monthly return from these debt notes, investors can reinvest in other assets and expand their portfolio.
Consumer lending in Nigeria has grown significantly in the past few years. In a bid to grow the lending activities of commercial banks, the CBN in 2019 raised the loan to deposit ratio to a minimum of 65%. With the penalty of having uninvested funds seized by the central bank, commercial banks were forced to start lending to the real sector of the economy. This led to a 37% rise in consumer lending in Nigeria to N2 trillion in 2020.
This also led to the influx of loan sharks who take advantage of their borrowers. At Twelve, we work with credible micro-lending companies who go through our due diligence process before they are introduced to the members of the community who make independent financial decisions themselves.
Investment Outcome
Since working with Credit Wallet (Princeps Credit System Limited), the company has secured Money Lenders License from Lagos State, Port-Harcourt and FCT Abuja. Credit Wallet (Princeps Credit System Limited) is one of the subsidiaries of Princeps Holding Limited, other subsidiaries of Princeps Holding Limited (PHL) includes
- Princeps Cyber Synergy Limited: The Technology and Innovation arm of PHL
- Source Microfinance bank: Secures an approval-in-principle in December 2022 for Source Microfinance Bank. The process of securing its final license is currently in progress
- MyStash: PHL purchased controlling shares in MyStash , a fin-tech start-up. This product provides the opportunity for individuals to save and invest.
- PHL Properties: With $1.92 million invested at different investment windows over a period of 18 months at an average annual ROI of 27%, Members of the community have earned an average of $529,573 in ROI from Credit Wallet.
Our investing activities have also been beneficial to Credit Wallet as the company has grown significantly since we partnered with them. Within a period of 3 years, the company has grown its revenue by over 1,000%.
At Twelve, we believe in impact investing, and we work with companies we believe are contributing to economic growth and provide more jobs in the local economy.