U-Gain: Get 9% Interest Investing In Zim’s First Retail Bond Available Through Mobile Money

If you were looking for a fantastic investment opportunity which is easy to understand and yet offers attractive return then look no further. You can invest right from your mobile money account too.

Untu Capital recently announced a retail note you can invest in which guarantees 9% interest per year. Do not be intimidated by the term ‘retail note.’ What simply happens is that you loan Untu Capital money and they will pay you back what you lent them and give you interest on top of that,

So the retail note is called U-Gain and as mentioned above it offers 9% per 12 months. The interest offered is fixed which means it won’t be changed during the loan period. That means you can accurately predict your total interest receipts over the loan period and easily too.

Untu Capital had this to say about what U-Gain is,

This note is a financial contract between the Note Issuer (Untu Capital) and the Note Investor (you or me.) The Note Issuer promises to pay the Note Investor interest after every six months for the 12 month investment period. The Note Issuer also promises to repay the principal given by the Note Investor at the end of the agreed period of 12 months. The Note is issued by the Note Issuer to raise funds for a specific purpose.

So the interest rate is 9% but the interest is payable every six months, that is twice a year. Then Untu will then pay back the principal, which is the money you invested in U-Gain originally.

The minimum you can invest in the U-Gain is $50 and there is no maximum. You do not need a bank account though as your mobile money account will do just fine. At launch only EcoCash and telecash users will be able to buy U-Gain from their mobile money accounts. At the moment only telecash is live and EcoCash will be momentarily up.

You will be able to buy U-Gain during the offer period (primary market) at no cost but the mobile money charges. The offer period is that time you will be able to buy U-Gain directly from Untu Capital. The offer period ends on the 31st of December so do not be confused when you visit their website say the offer period ends on the 30th of November.

The U-Gain notes will be listed on the Financial Securities Exchange (FINSEC.) FINSEC is one of Zimbabwe’s two stock exchanges, the other one being the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE.) So after the offer period you will be able to trade the U-Gain notes like you would shares.

Interest is earned daily and so if you sell your notes before the 12 months are up you will receive the interest earned up to that date of sale immediately. The price you can sell the U-Gain note on the FINSEC stock market will be determined by market forces. So you could sell your $50 note for more than the face value.

For example you could buy your $100 U-Gain note and sell it after only 6 months. Depending on the going price on FINSEC you could sell the note for $102 but the interest of $4.5 (100*9%*6/12) would still be paid out. This will then mean you will have gained $6.50 (6.5%) after 6 months.

If you have looked around looking for money market opportunities then you know that 9% is rather attractive. If you were to just keep that money in a bank account, you wouldn’t get interest on that money as good as the 9%.

So if you have some extra funds you might as well buy some U-Gain notes since you will be able to sell the note for cash as and when needed.

To get started if you are on telecash, dial *707# to register. On EcoCash you will need to dial *905#, but remember it is not yet live.

On EcoCash once registered you will then have to dial *151# then you will find the U-Gain notes on the regular payments page. On telecash that same *707# will do.