Today Rainfin launched the first p2p lending service in South Africa, which to my knowledge is the first national p2p lending service operating in an African country. Based on a sophisticated technology founders Sean Emery and Hannes van der Merwe launched the service after more than a year of implementation. Borrowers can apply for loan amounts between 1,000 and 75,000 ZAR (approx. 125 to 9,250 US$). Rainfin expects to reject as much as 80% of the applications. Rainfin charges 3% in transaction fees (2% to borrowers plus 1% to lenders). Rainfin uses an auction systems with the borrower setting the maximum interest rate he is willing to pay. Current listing are for nominal interest of about 15%.

For more detailed background information see the cited Techcentral article below.

Sources: TechCentral: Rainfin loans without banks, company information, Businesstech Social lending to hit SA banking