In South Africa, where about half the car loan applications are denied, online taxi service Uber plans to rent cars to Uber drivers who can’t afford to buy them and provide education on how to run their businesses, Reuters reports.

Uber signed a $14 million deal with South African vehicle finance provider WesBank, part of lender FirstRand, that will enable Uber to rent cars to drivers who do not qualify for traditional car loans due to a lack of credit history.

Drivers will be educated on how to run their own business through Vumela, FirstRand’s enterprise development group, Reuters reports. Vumela will finance 20 million rand ($1.4 million) for the first 1,000 cars and will pay WesBank cash back if car loans are not paid, Uber said.

Around half of car loan applications are declined in South Africa, WesBank CEO Chris de Kock said at a press  conference, Reuters reports.

WesBank loans will be repaid from the Uber fares that drivers collect from passengers, lowering the risk of default, de Kock said. Loan repayment amounts will vary, depending on how much business drivers do.

Valued at $50 billion, San Francisco-based Uber now operates in more than 60 countries. It uses a GPS-enabled app to link passengers to drivers from private car companies, promising cheap rates and quicker response time than the competition.

Uber launched in Johannesburg in 2012 and has been operating in Lagos since 2014 and Nairobi since February, 2015, BBC reported.

Wherever it operates, it meets fierce competition, both from traditional taxi companies and startups trying to emulate — and better — it.

In South Africa,where unemployment is about 25 percent, Uber is considered a messiah of sorts, bringing affordable fees to transportation, and allowing people with cars to become entrepreneurs. And it’s happening in a cashless environment.

“Guys that started with one car now have multiple vehicles,” said Alon Lits, general manager of Uber Johannesburg, in an earlier AFKInsider report. “Now they’re entrepreneurs.”

Competition includes Easy Taxi in Nigeria — which now operates in 30 countries — and Zapacab in South Africa, VenturesAfrica reports.

In July, tensions flared among Johannesburg’s notoriously tough traditional metered taxi drivers losing customers to Uber. BBC reported. Taxi drivers in South Africa have a fierce reputation dating back to apartheid and they have resorted to violence in the past to protect their routes, according to BBC.

The apartheid government failed to provide reliable public transport for the majority of South Africans. Black entrepreneurs started informal taxi services that they have been running for decades. Minibus taxis transport millions of people daily to work,  providing an essential service.

Traditional taxi drivers say some locals have to wait years for a taxi  license. The foreign-owned Uber received its taxi licence quickly, they said, according to BBC.

Uber South Africa said it had 1 million rides in 2014. It doubled that in the first half of 2015.