Cellulant has announced a partnership with Stanbic Bank that will see artistes in their portfolio access bank loans from their Skiza ringtone royalties.
Under the agreement, artistes will be able to access direct capital for their different music project initiatives including recording, video production, event sponsorships, album production, marketing & advertising. The loan facility will also enable artists to purchase homes, land, construct, purchase cars as well as personal borrowing exclusively from Stanbic Bank. The royalties earned will guarantee the loans through a monthly check-off repayment plan, being managed by Cellulant.
Over 5,000 artistes are currently signed on Cellulant’s ringtone platform since it launched its Lipuka service in 2004, run under Safaricom’s Skiza umbrella.
Lipuka allows subscribers to download their favorite ringtones whilst empowering artistes to earn royalties, paid to them by Cellulant. Currently, more than 11 digital content service providers (PRSPs) work with Safaricom to both manage and collect revenues on their behalf. Skiza is East Africa’s largest digital content platform with average revenues, month on month estimated at Ksh 500 million.
“Although Cellulant has grown and diversified to become a leading Pan-African technology company, we pioneered Digital Content Services in Africa over two decades ago selling ringtone downloads through partnerships with fledgling musicians and mobile operators.
“The music content space has since grown, unfortunately, musicians still struggle to turn their talents into a viable business. This agreement with Stanbic Bank is our way of showing our musicians that we are still invested in their success and that we understand the fundamentals of growing the music business in Kenya. Now is the time to invest in our musicians as the global music industry looks towards Africa for inspiration.” said co-founder, Ken Njoroge
“This is a multi-million shilling industry that has been neglected for a long time with no financial solutions tailored for musicians. We acknowledge that the royalties are a source of income and are now providing products based on this that will go a long way in enabling artists to accelerate their music careers,” added Stanbic Bank Head of Personal Banking Dr Silpah Owich.
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The event was attended by Makena, Fenny Kerubo, Hellen Mwangi and Collo among other musicians. Also present was Cellulant’s CEO and co-founder Ken Njoroge, Dr. Silpah Owich, Head of Personal Banking, Stanbic and David Waithaka, Cellulant Chief of Strategy.
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