Startup Zilla offering shoppers interest-free credit to buy goods from UK, Nigeria

Fintech firm Zilla is setting sights on millennial shoppers in a bid to win over more clients to its Buy Now Pay Later platform, which already has 30,000 people on its sign-up list over 10 months after operations started.
The start-up links buyers of consumer goods to merchants in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, and steps in at the point of sale to fund the balance after the customer has made a part payment of 25 per cent, the company told PREMIUM TIMES by email.
Customers of this hue, who are often not financially enabled to make outright purchase, repay the credit to Zilla in four equal installments at no interest over six weeks.
Tolu Abiodun, Founder Zilla
Consumer inflation in Africa’s largest economy has been implacable for months, touching its high in over five years in June, according to figures issued by the statistics office Friday.
That has reduced the disposable income of many middle-income households, a reason to make consumers warm up to digital banks promising interest-free loans to meet urgent needs.
From Silicon Valley-based Class 5 Global, the firm last September raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding to provide soft loans to finance purchase of anything from electronics, gifts, beauty & skincare products and fashion accessories, to services like travel and healthcare.
Those who have enrolled are each eligible for N300,000 credit at most.
Its mobile apps for android and iOS will hit the market soon and are aimed at making connection between users wanting to procure goods and over 4,000 merchants more seamless.

Zilla is betting on its business model to provide a quicker and a formidable alternative for shoppers unwilling to face the formalities and rigours of getting credit cards.

Of the $1.4 billion raised for Nigeria, the start-up capital of Africa, last year, 63 per cent went to fintechs, where unicorns like Flutterwave, OPay, Interswitch and Andela are among the sector leaders.
Private equity firms from San Francisco, California are flocking to Nigeria to chase tech companies with the potential to scale and which can leverage internet of things to spur growth among a digital-enabled youth population.
The UN expects the country’s population to eclipse that of the US by 2050, when it is projected to be the world’s third most populous nation, a trend venture capitalists count among potential that could be harnessed to drive penetration.
Tolu Abiodun, a web developer and visual designer, founded Zilla.

Support PREMIUM TIMES’ journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.
Donate

TEXT AD: Call Willie – +2348098788999