Bayport Financial Service Provider

Bayport is a financial service provider in Africa, and one of the leading unsecured credit providers on the continent.  Bayport Financial Services has been operating for seven years and have proven that it is possible to offer responsible credit in Africa.  That is because Bayport is a financial service provider with a difference.

Bayport does not release financial and trading information into the public domain, because it is a private company.  However, detailed information is available on our branches, distribution networks, marketing initiatives, customer support and products.  At holding company level, a consortium of respected international institutional investors fund Bayport, among which are Investment AB Kinnevik, Citibank and Noonday Asset Management LLP.  These investors contribute their business networks, financial support and experience investing in Africa.  Local funding support is shored up by senior debt providers like Barclays, Citibank, Old Mutual, Stanbic and Standard Charted Bank.  Other local asset managers and pension funds contribute as well.

Bayport’s founding shareholders and institutional founders have been committed to supporting the company from the start, giving Bayport the momentum to establish a sound base for strong and sustainable growth.  We have valuable local partners like labour movements and the executive managers of our operations companies, in addition to other companies that hold local shareholdings in Bayport.  These partners compliment Bayport’s founding entrepreneurs, who form Bayport’s core shareholding and dedicate themselves to create further equity value for all the shareholders.

One of Bayport’s most important business pillars is customer care.  We like to establish long-term partnerships and relationships with our clients and help them build a better future by empowering them.  Bayport has 235 branches in five different countries: South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Zambia.  Our South African operations came into being in 2004.  Amidst rapid growth, Bayport has become one of the biggest local suppliers of unsecured credit and other related financial products.  Our mobile consulting teams, sophisticated call centres and unique online credit origination relationship with the South African Post Office have enabled us to reach our clients and change lives, irrespective of how remote their location.

It was no easy task to build and scale an unsecured credit business model in Africa.  This has kept many rivals out of the market, believing that it would not be possible.  However, Bayport’s unique approach and the nature of our business model have enabled us to blaze a trail in Africa and experience rapid growth with it.  We work “The Bayport Way” and this tagline represents a principled, entrepreneurial, instinctive and conviction-based approach in everything we do.

There is a wealth of experience in Bayport’s management team and board and these management structures are committed to make the most of the opportunities that have arisen with the introduction of the National Credit Act (NCA) of 2007.  As our unsecured credit market matures, it has become increasingly sophisticated and we are intent on being South Africans’ preferred choice when it comes to unsecured credit.  Our phenomenal growth has made this vision more attainable than ever.

Our efforts will be further bolstered by the fact that we have the necessary backup to make it happen: we have the best information technology platform in the business, in addition to market-leading credit and risk assessment competency.  Our funding structure is securitised too, and these factors have enabled us to grow our business and market share with no cost to our market-leading credit quality, which is still the envy of our competitors.

Bayport has been active in Ghana since 2003.  Ghana Financial Services has undergone a transformation and has become Bayport Financial Services.  We place high priority on promoting the best interests of the Ghanaian people, which is why we select partners that have the same goals.  Therefore, we have traditionally partnered with the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union and the Ghana National Association of Teachers.  The very experienced Kwame Pianim is the Chairman of Bayport Ghana and has led the Ghana operations to create and design financial product that target local people’s specific needs and requirements.  We endeavour to understand Ghanaians’ attitudes towards credit, to better manage expectations, counselling and assistance functions.  Much-needed cash can now reach the hands of ordinary Ghanaians and we also improve their lives in other ways, like being extensively involved in community-building projects and other forms of social investment.

The result of all of this is that Bayport Ghana is now the largest retail credit provider in the country.  Bayport is a financial service provider that makes a difference in Africans’ lives.