Ithala SOC Limited has once again handed over taxis to Grange and Westgate Taxi Association in a bid to contribute to the revitalization of the industry. The financial institution made available 10 taxis to second and third-time buyers – three of out the ten were women taxi owners. Ithala’s unique taxi finance service offering has committed to assisting taxi owners through its relationship with taxi associations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The handover took place at Halfway Toyota in Howick earlier this month where taxi owners expressed their happiness after getting their taxis to add on their fleet. According to one of the beneficiaries of Ithala Taxi Finance, Ms Cawekazi Mshengu, “I am very excited that I got to add to my fleet of taxis as we continue to commute people from their homes to work.

Taxis are an integral part of our economy for all sectors of our society. They ferry passengers to and from work who are contributing to the growth of our economy. The bank has committed to playing a major part in this by providing taxi finance which enables taxi owners to grow their fleets.

“Ithala continues to help us a lot in ensuring that we can ferry as many as possible passengers to reduce long queues at taxi rank which make it easy for our client to arrive on time at work. This wouldn’t be possible with Ithala providing such assistance and making the process of applying for their finance easy,” Ms Mshengu said.

The chairman of the association, Mr Nhlanhla Nkomo was full of praise of Ithala after the success of this process. “We are very happy that our members have now been added to their fleet. As an association, we are very proud that Ithala has also included us in their mercy and helped our members with the new fleet.

“Our work will now be easy as we will reduce long queues at our taxi ranks and commutes will arrive on time at work,” he added.

Speaking at the handing-over event, Dr Thulani Vilakazi said, “Our mission remains intact as it pertains to the taxi industry in our province. As part of safety, passengers need to be ferried with taxis that are in good condition”

“We remain open to assisting more taxi associations from the length and breadth of our province at all times. Come in numbers and get the assistance you need at one of our branches across the province,” he said.

A pioneer in banking the unbanked in KZN, Ithala SOC Limited is the first financial services institution to provide banking services to townships and rural areas of KZN and provides a range of key savings and investments products, insurance services and personal and home loan products to communities throughout the province.

With a distribution network of 38 branches across the province of KwaZulu-Natal which provides convenient transacting facilities.

For more information, visit www.myithala.co.za, call 031 366 2500 or follow #MoveToIthala #RedefiningWealth #StateBank #MyIthala