About us
About Alector Microfinance
A registered Zimbabwean microfinance institution lending to the traders, farmers and salaried workers that conventional bank credit does not reach.
Who we are
Credit for the majority economy
Most economic activity in Zimbabwe happens outside the formal banking system. The trader restocking at Mbare Musika, the farmer buying fertiliser before the rains, the teacher facing a school invoice a fortnight before payday — all have real, verifiable income, and almost none of them have the audited accounts or credit file a bank requires before it will lend.
Alector Microfinance exists for that gap. We are a registered microfinance institution, which means we operate under formal supervision rather than as an informal lender, and we are held to the record-keeping, disclosure and conduct standards that come with it.
What we lend is deliberately modest — $50 to $8,000, over three to twelve months. We are not trying to be a bank. We are trying to be the first formal lender a great many Zimbabweans ever have, and to leave them with a credit record they can take elsewhere.
Registered details
- Legal name
- Alector Microfinance
- Registration
- RBZ-MFI-2024-017
- Registered office
- 14 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Harare
- Lending currency
- United States dollars (USD)
- Area served
- Zimbabwe, nationwide
- Office hours
- Monday–Friday 08:00–16:30 · Saturday 08:00–12:00
Verify these details against the register before you borrow — from us or from anyone. A lender who will not give you their registration number is not one you should be dealing with.
How we lend
Four things we hold ourselves to
Publish the price before the pitch
Every product carries a published rate and range on this website, before anyone asks you for a document. A lender that will not show a rate until you have applied is telling you something.
Size the loan to the income, not the appetite
We assess what an installment does to a household or a trading cycle, not the largest sum you could conceivably service. Lending someone the maximum is easy; it is also how borrowers get into trouble.
Score the record, not the reputation
Your Alector trust score is built from settled installments — evidence you generated. Not a bureau file you have never seen, and not a judgement about the area you live in.
Leave a person to argue with
Every decision has a loan officer behind it, and we show you what drove your score. If it looks wrong to you, there is someone to ask.
Credit decisions
How we decide, and how you can challenge it
Every application is scored and then seen by a loan officer. The score draws on your identity and income verification, your stated purpose, and — once you have borrowed from us before — your actual repayment record. Settled installments raise it; overdue ones lower it.
That score sets your tier, and your tier sets your ceiling. New borrowers start at up to $500; at gold tier the limit reaches up to eight times that. The progression is the whole product: the first loan is small because there is nothing yet to go on, and it grows because you demonstrated something.
We show you what drives your score inside your account. If a decision looks wrong to you, ask — there is a named officer behind it, and an explanation you are entitled to.
What we will not do
We will not lend you more because you asked for more. We will not add a fee that was not on the schedule you accepted. We will not sell you a product that does not fit — our guide to vehicle and equipment finance is us saying so in writing. And we will not pretend to have branches we do not have.
Keep reading
Understand how we work
How the application process works
From creating an account to disbursement and your first installment — the full sequence, step by step.
Read moreRates and fees
What each product costs, what is charged and when, and what happens if an installment is missed.
Read moreResponsible lending
How we decide what you can afford, what we do when a borrower falls behind, and how to complain.
Read more
Borrow from a lender you can check
Registration number, office address and published rates — all on this page, before you give us anything.
Free to apply · No hidden fees · Most applications reviewed the same working day