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Her Duuka is helping over 500 women businesses survive Covid-19 hangover

Our Reporter.

The past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic literally placed everyone in their right place – for both good and bad reasons. On the bad side; businesses closed, people lost jobs, families were broken, education stagnated and the economy crumbled.

Like they say, in every challenge, there is always an opportunity. The pandemic, especially the lockdown, sharpened people’s minds to pave way for creativity, innovation and enterprise. Such terms as ‘working from home’, ‘new normal’ and ‘online trade’ became common and are now being put to good use.

For example, it was during the lockdown that Felix Balitumye realized the need to digitally empower women entrepreneurs whose businesses were on the rocks. Together with his team at Computing Palace Technologies, Balitumye created a digital e-commerce platform and named it Her Duuka where women would register their businesses and connect to customers digitally.

“The 2020 lockdown mostly affected women because they dominate the small retail businesses. We realized that there is need to empower them to stay afloat. Many had closed shops and their stock was just wasting away,” says Balitumye.

On the other hand, he says, people were all stuck at home but in great need of supplies, thus the need to connect suppliers to consumers. Her Duuka is a convenient online platform where one just needs to visit www.herduuka.com and register their business with specific product details, prices, location and contacts. Supplies range from home appliances, beauty, machinery, beverages, to foods and furniture.

“Our role is to register suppliers. All things on Her Duuka are owned by different people with independent businesses. If a person wants to buy, they go straight to Her Duuka and tap on the product and they are prompted to put details of where they want it delivered, payment mode, etc, and submit,” he says, noting that clients can pay using mobile money, cash on delivery or bank transfers.

Balitumye says this digital product has been a revelation to many women who had lost hope following the 2020 lockdown. To date, more than 500 businesses have registered on Her Duuka.

Because most women entreprenuers are either illiterate or semi-literate, Balitumye says that all entrants are taken through digital literacy trainings to ensure that they can ably use the platform.

“We then create a portal for every supplier which helps them manage daily transactions to track income and expenditure. In other words, it has an inbuilt financial management platform to help empower women in financial inclusion,” he says.

While they primarily enroll people with conventional businesses, Balitumye says they are now looking into incorporating people without physical shops or workshops. For instance, there are some students in hostels and even housewives who would want to register and sell their merchandise and make money.

“Even men are asking to join the platform but, for now, we want to maintain the brand, making sure that women are taking the front lead,” Balitumye says.

There is no business without challenges. Balitumye says they still face resistance from some people with a negative attitude towards e-commerce platforms because some have been previously duped by scammers.

“The other problem is financial empowerment… these businesses take long to make profits. So, you have to keep investing. It needs a lot of resilience…and massive investment,” he said before applauding the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for the massive awareness and advocacy for FinTechs.

40-Days 40-FinTechs.

Her Duuka is the tenth participant in the 2022 40-Days 40-Fintechs initiative.

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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JUMO World is extending digital loans to more than 2.5 million Ugandans

Our Reporter.

With the worsening economic situation in the country, on top of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, most Ugandans have resorted to seeking short-term loans from friends and family to make ends meet.

But this is an unsustainable scenario because even those friends are struggling too, trying hard to survive with the little they have.

And that is where JUMO World comes in, to facilitate digital quick loans and mitigate the financial burden one would impose on their immediate circle.

Since 2017, JUMO World has been acting as an integrator for Uganda’s top telecoms Airtel and MTN to provide soft loans and saving platforms for Ugandans. To date, more than 2.6 million subscribers have benefitted from Airtel Uganda’s Wewole and MTN’s MoSente platforms.

On the 9th Day of the 2022 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative, Season 3, we speak to Wilfred Wabwire, the JUMO World Country Manager for Uganda. Below is what he has to say.

QN: What is JUMO and what do you do?

ANS: JUMO is the market-leading banking as a service platform, enabling real-time access to funds at the lowest possible operating cost. Integrating into JUMO’s platform enables our partners to offer loans, savings and a wide range of financial choices to a new group of customers.

QN: How is your Wewole Product in partnership with Airtel Money performing? How did COVID-19 affect it?

ANS: JUMO has been offering Wewole loans in partnership with Airtel Uganda since 2017. The product is available on Airtel Money by dialing *185#, select option 8 for Wewole and follow the prompts. Covid-19 impacted people’s lives in ways previously unimagined. In response to the pandemic, JUMO World Uganda, implemented several initiatives to minimize the impact of covid-19 on borrowers including waiving the late payment fee given the situation at that time.

In terms of performance, Wewole Loan product has been used by over 2.5 million unique customers since its inception. This year to date, we have disbursed loans worth UGX 32 billion.  In April 2022, we opened-up the Wewole product to new eligible Airtel money customers.  Customers can borrow between as UGX 3,000 – UGX 1,000,00 and Customers with good repayment behavior gradually qualify for incrementally larger amounts.

QN: You recently launched MoSente with MTN Mobile Money. Congratulations! Tell us more about MoSente. What it is, how it works and everything else your clients ought to know.

ANS: MoSente is a convenient way for MTN MoMo customers to access credit services. Customers can borrow from as low as UGX 3, 000 and can chose either 14 days or 30 days to repay back the loan depending on their preferred loan term. To access Mosente loans, a customer simply dials *165*5*5# and follow the prompts. Money is instantly deposited in the customers MoMo wallet. To qualify for higher loan amounts, customers need to repay their MoSente loans on time, every time and keep using MTN MoMo account.

QN: What has been the impact of your credit products to the people of Uganda since you launched? How much cumulative credit have you given out on both Wewole and MoSente? How many borrowers are on both platforms? Etc.

ANS: JUMO World Uganda has collectively served about 2.65 million unique customers on both MoSente and Wewole since inception. This year to date, we have disbursed loans worth UGX 55 billion. A borrower shared with us that he “no longer looks for someone to borrow money from because they are using our service”. Another one said that he ‘used the first JUMO loan to pay school fees; he used the next loan for farming, and harvested much which helped him greatly to improve his house hold income”. These are some of the examples of the real positive impact our loans are having on the people of Uganda.

QN: What is JUMO doing to enhance Women Financial Inclusion? How are you supporting start-ups and informal businesses?

ANS: One third of JUMO borrowers are Women.  For every ten borrowers on the JUMO Platform, six are MSMEs. One of our female borrowers, shared with us that “her life had improved with JUMO loans, by harvesting more on her farm and being able to pay her workers.”

Eligible Customers who are either starting up or in informal businesses can access MoSente Loan on MTN MoMo menu or Wewole loan on Airtel Money Menu. Customers simply need to frequently use their Mobile money wallets and register for the services.

JUMO through our Wewole Agent loan also offers access to unsecured Credit facilities to Airtel Money Agents to enable them to manage their float and serve their customers. Agents can borrow between UGX 10,000 and UGX 1, 600, 000 and repay back in 30 days.

QN: As a big player in FINTECH, is JUMO implementing Level One Project Principles such as Tiered KYC, Accessibility on Low-Quality Devices, Same Day Settlement and Real-Time Payments?

ANS: JUMO loans can be accessed on any type of mobile phone including feature phones and on qualifying and applying for a loan, customers get the funds instantly. Similarly, when a customer settles their loan, the transaction is processed in real-time 24/7 and the loan is cleared there and then.

QN: In your opinion, what is the state of Uganda’s FinTech industry?

ANS: The number of Fintechs in Uganda has been steadily growing from a handful to approximately 70 to-date. Events such as 40Days40FinTechs and Fintech conferences have enabled FinTechs to be seen and heard. Regulatory developments such as the National Payments Systems Act, Data Protection Act amongst others have further helped to streamline and formalize the industry. However, there is still opportunity to attract more funding, customer advocacy, and diversifying into more sectors including RegTech, Buy now Pay later, Savings and Budgeting solutions.

QN: Knowing the issues facing the FINTECH Industry, what role does the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative play in shaping the industry?

ANS: The 40Days40FinTechs initiate has given Fintechs a platform to showcase how their solutions are transforming livelihoods as well as the contribution of FinTech towards economic development. 40Days40Fintechs is also creating the much-needed awareness in the industry and ultimately driving usage/utilization of the innovations by the end-users as well as attracting funding/investment in the FinTech space.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space.

That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya appreciated Jumo as one of the top FinTechs in the country changing millions of lives.

“It is very promising to hear that Jumo has disbursed over Shs 50bn in soft loans to both individuals and businesses. It shows an improving trend of use of digital financial services in the country,” he said.

Kawooya added that this year’s edition will cement the achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” he said.

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Belle Beauty is using FinTech to help Ugandan beauticians

Our Reporter.

When Uganda was put into a total lockdown in March 2020 due to the outbreak of Covid-19, my stylist’s hair salon came to a grand halt. She was forced to close business six months later because she could not afford to pay the rent arrears demanded by her landlord despite the fact that the salon was not operating for that entire period.

But my hair stylist’s predicament would soon become a blessing in disguise as I came up with a digital solution that would save her and many more. Belle Beauty Uganda is the first digital platform that connects beauty service providers to clients.

According to Alice Sharon Namugerwa, Belle Beauty’s founder and team lead, this platform acts like a middle-man that connects clients to service providers in the beauty industry.

“We realized that if you do hair styling, nails, make-up and are sure of what you do, you just need a platform that connects you to customers, just like Uber connects drivers and passengers,” she says.

“When I talked to Namale (my hair stylist), I realized that she was not alone. There are many people like her who are single mothers trying to fend for their children but their businesses were affected by Covid-19. How were they surviving? So, I wanted to come up with a solution that could give women in the informal sector a place where they could work. ”

She adds that this application is therefore, women-centric, with the view that women are actually the backbone of the economy without noticing that they are.

To get services, one just needs to download the application or visit the Belle Beauty website and make orders.

On the side of service providers, Namugerwa notes that they first conduct due diligence on all applicants before onboarding them.

“They are required to provide certain documents and they sign contracts and we train them. We do not set prices for service providers….we just provide a rating system,” she says.

HOW IT WORKS

After downloading the application, the customer can make an order and the app will show the service providers that are in close proximity. The client makes a choice and pays using mobile money.

“The order always has specifics of what the client wants and where they want it to be done. If the customer wants the service urgently and the selected provider cannot meet the timelines, we are able to go in the system and reallocate the deal to another available provider. The client has to get the service at the time they want,” Namugerwa says.

After a service is completed, then the service provider is paid electronically by Belle Beauty in less than 24 hours. Namugerwa adds that they are now planning on creating a beauty hub where all service providers who do not have physical salons/workstations can converge and work.

“We will give them a chance where you don’t have to have a saloon. You just come with your client, as long as they have booked through Belle
Beauty and work on them from there. This will eliminate the extra cost of running a business on their part as women,” she says.

They also plan on helping women come up with saving schemes and investment plans.

Namugerwa appreciates the chance offered by the 40 days 40
FinTechs initiative to showcase tech startups because such opportunities offer visibility and exposure.

“If you are a startup, everything costs money. So, we appreciate HiPipo for giving us a chance to showcase our product for free… It also highlights the ecosystem of the FinTech space. You get to learn from other FinTechs and E-Commerce players and what they are offering,” she says.

Belle Beauty is the 8th participant in the 2022 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Silicon Pay using FinTech to ease payments

By Our writer  

Away from its negative consequences, the COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener to individuals and businesses. It brought the role and overall importance of digital financial services (DFS) at the forefront.

Further, the pandemic opened opportunities for Financial Technology companies (FinTechs) to come up with innovative solutions that have since transformed the way people make and receive payments.

Among FinTechs benefiting from this wave is Silicon Savannah Limited, a technology company whose Silicon Pay solution is easing payments for several businesses.

According to the Silicon Pay Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Settuba, the firm offers a fully integrated suite of payments products including collections, bulk payments, utilities, and bank transfers through its Application Programming Interface (API). For about three years in business, the company has over 900 retained clients and 15,000 active merchants and users. This includes about 30 percent women users. Silicon Pay is also supporting about 500 women SACCOs on matters collections and pay outs.

 “COVID-19 affected businesses but it paved way for the growth of digital payments as businesses moved online because they could not do physical meet-ups and collections. More people got to know about the online services that we offer and they tried them out,” he says.

To stay on top of their game, Settuba says Silicon Pay integrated new products and services to meet its clients’ evolving financial needs. For instance, it integrated mobile wallets to cater for customers who receive money in different currencies.

It also forged partnerships with key service providers such as e-commerce platforms, to provide more services to its clients.

To make it easy for businesses to onboard, Settuba says that the company uses the tiered Know-Your-Customer (KYC) principle, which also helps them guard against fraud.

“To understand who we are dealing with, we incorporated KYC standards to better understand the customer we are dealing with. We thus take extra steps by asking them to prove their identity, nature of the business to make sure the source of a customer’s funds is legitimate,” Settuba notes.

He adds that their system enables users to monitor their funds on their dashboard in real-time and can withdraw through mobile money instantly whenever they need it.

Additionally, the platform enables users to transfer funds instantly to their preferred bank accounts on request and receive the funds in a few hours depending on the time the request is made.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Silicon Pay is among the firms taking part in the 2022 40-Days 40-Fintechs initiative and has been featured on Day 7.

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Ticteq is using FINTECH to reduce Tickets’ purchase hustle and commotion

Our Reporter.

For those that have attended events in Uganda, you are familiar with the hustle and bustle involved in buying entry tickets. This includes long queues, higher prices than originally advertised and fraudsters selling fake tickets among other issues.

But all this will soon be history; if event organizers and revelers can incorporate technology in the ticketing journey.

Already on the market is a solution that brings together event organizers and party-goers on a single online platform called Ticteq.

Ticteq is an online ticketing company that deals in events ticketing and crowd funding. So far, the platform has sold over ten thousand (10,000) tickets, has sixty thousand (60,000) subscribers and has digitally transacted in excess of sixty million shillings (UGX 60m).

According to George Katuramu, the Ticteq Director, the solution has allowed event organizers to shift from the slow, costly and inconveniencing manual process to a digital one that allows them to register and upload their events on the Ticteq platform for potential customers to purchase tickets.

Using the platform, event organisers can contact people who have bought tickets, and customers can also get refunds in case they are unable to attend.

“This is a complete solution for someone who wants to organize a successful event, without worrying about tickets, fake notes, coins or being cheated at the entrance,” Katuramu says, adding that one simply visits the Ticteq website to buy a ticket using either MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money or a credit card. The money is automatically remitted to the event organizer’s mobile or bank account.

He further explains that even though the long COVID-19 lockdown set them back, the platform is fast picking up given that it gives events stakeholders a variety of advantages including safety and settling transactions in real time.

“We were affected by COVID-19 because all events were cancelled. But since we resumed events, we are picking up from where we had stopped. We have already had a few successful events and there is hope and growth.”

Away from ticketing, Ticteq is also offering a crowd-funding product that allows people to share their causes with the public, and raise funds to address their pressing needs.

The causes supported by this platform, according to Katuramu, can range from education to medical to social, among others.

“With our portal, you can always know who donated, the total number of people who donated and the total amount donated and you can withdraw the money to your mobile money account or a bank account at any time. When a person makes a donation, the benefactor automatically receives the money instantly at no cost,” he says.

Although the product would salvage many people who we usually see on social media platforms conversing for financial support, Katuramu notes that most Ugandans are yet to appreciate the power of crowd funding.

“Most Ugandans think that crowd funding is for people who need organ transplant or surgery which is not true; it is for everyone. You may need tuition to complete your education or need money to travel, you can raise it through crowd funding,” he says.

“Simply share your story, giving details of what you need to do and how you want to do it. The people who will like your story and get touched to contribute towards the cause; they will do so,” he explains.

Ticteq is the sixth participant of the 2022 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Peleyta is using FINTECH to enable less fortunate Ugandans access quality healthcare

Our Reporter.  

Majority of Ugandans are just one medical emergency and hospital admission away from financial ruin and untold disaster. This is because accessing quality healthcare is very expensive and a preserve of a few.

Even though the government, with support from development partners, has invested massively in healthcare, the cost of medication remains very high for the uninsured.

It is this predicament that inspired a group of young Ugandans to come up with a digital platform that can enable ordinarily Ugandans save money for health emergencies.

Named Peleyta Health, this digital platform is a flexible, affordable and convenient FinTech helping low-income earners prepare for and afford quality healthcare anywhere at all times through a digital healthcare micro savings and lending.  

“We derive our name Peleyta from the English word Pay Later; meaning that if you request for a medical loan from Peleyta, we have it extended to you, get treated and pay later at your convenience. We believe that no one should struggle financially to receive healthcare,” Douglas Smith, the Peleyta Co-Founder, said.

He added: “When you look at insurance penetration in Uganda, it stands at 1 percent, leaving over 43 million Ugandans uninsured. At Peleyta Health, we enable our users to save as low as UGX 500 cumulatively deducted and reserved for health care. All this is done through mobile money. This fund can be used to offset their medical bills or buy medicine at registered healthcare facilities and pharmacies. And in case these funds are not sufficient, they can request for a micro loan and we do a top up for them.”

To start this journey, the team behind Peleyta Health was challenged and motivated by an unfortunate viral story of a one Anita Mushieimana, who walked to Kitwe Health Centre IV (Ntungamo district) to give birth, upon reaching at the health centre, she delivered at the gate because she failed to pay UGX 50,000 to let her into the delivery Ward.

“After some time designing this platform, we launched early this year and have so far cleared medical bills of more than 150 subscribers. We also have more than 20 health facilities registered on our platform. We started from Ibanda district and are progressing well in western Uganda. We plan to expand to more healthcare facilities across Uganda.”  

To get started, you download the Peleyta APP or visit their website and register. Only registered members are guaranteed to access Peleyta services within the shortest time possible since their KYC and due diligence in general was earlier done during registration stage.

Registered members instantly have a savings account with Peleyta Health created; an account they keep servicing either daily, weekly, or monthly starting with as low as UGX 500. These savings attract interests at the end of the month. Savers will access their savings to clear their medical fares anytime.

Peleyta Health is the 5th participant of the 2022 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.  

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing, generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three will cover physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Money Sent is aiding borderless money transfers

Our Reporter.

Have you ever been with an account that has money but are unable to access it? Put differently, has someone ever called you with an emergency that needs money? You may even have the money but are unable to send it to this person because of the absence of a transfer system?

A few years ago, a Ugandan was faced with such a problem (had money but was unable to send it to his friend who had an emergency), and got frustrated. But from the frustration, something good was born. Together with his peers, he developed Money Sent – a mobile app that allows both individuals and companies to connect conveniently in order to send, receive and coordinate efforts involving money.

“Together with my team, we developed an application that allows people to send and receive money. The reason why I created Money Sent was because one time ago, when I wanted to send money to my friend in America and wanted to do MoneyGram online; I signed up successfully at MoneyGram online but unfortunately I couldn’t send money to another person using MoneyGram online because I was a Ugandan. So, I was like Uganda needs something international; a solution that anyone can use to send and receive money regardless of their nationality. I thought of something that would be cheaper and convenient for everyone,” said James Mukasa, the Money Sent Founder and CEO, adding;

“It has been more than a year since we started and we have been growing well. The reason why we are called Money Sent is that it is in the past. The moment you click send; money has already been sent. It is instantaneous and secure. We are serving more than 3,000 customers right now. We have 497 agents around the country. We have done more than UGX 1 billion in transactions.”

Money Sent is bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked as no bank account is necessary to send or receive money using this system. The Application is built with online banking level security, meaning that the security of the application, transactions, data, and information of clients is guaranteed. It relies on principles that govern remittances worldwide and is compliant with AML (Anti-Money Laundering) standards. The Money Sent system is built on strong security standards, and prevents criminals from using the system for their selfish gains and nefarious interests.

This online payment system addresses not only the challenges of the fees charged, delays and tediousness of remittance processes, but also promotes targeted investment.

But even with the platform picking up well, Mr. Mukasa nonetheless decries the high charges levied by the telecoms which make business very hard for other stakeholders.

“Most of the unbanked people use MTN and Airtel. When our customers are adding more on Money Sent, the telecoms charge two percent or more yet the client expects to get the money as they have deposited it yet Money Sent has received lower thanks to these charges. This is a very big challenge. There should be togetherness in everything we do because Uganda is too big for only MTN and Airtel,” Mukasa explained.

Money Sent is the fourth participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three will cover physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Card Pesa is keeping start-ups and individuals afloat with instant collateral-free loans

Our Reporter.

Regardless of how persuasive loan advertisements are, getting credit in Uganda is one complicated hustle; more so for those in the informal sector – who happen to be the huge majority.

When one visits a formal financial institution, the paperwork, waiting time and costs involved to process a loan become a huge turn-off. This forces many to turn to loan sharks who have outrageous conditions; despite having instant cash.

Many ask those seeking credit to sign off their collateral security as sale agreements with a mutual understanding that when the loan is repaid, the sale agreement will become null and void. This particularly leaves those seeking credit between a rock and a hard place.

Nevertheless, there are digital solutions that are closing this credit gap. One of those organizations that is revolutionizing and democratizing credit is Card Pesa.

Card Pesa is a tier-four Non-Deposit Taking Microfinance Institution that uses online and cellular platforms to provide small working capital and emergency loans.

The Card Pesa platform is built to use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and online applications to deliver credit to you wherever you are for as long as you can connect to a telecom network. It is automated and therefore service time from the point you request for credit to the point you receive the credit is a matter of seconds.

The solution enables people access collateral-free working capital loans instantaneously to invest in their businesses so as to maintain or increase their earnings. It also provides personal emergency loans to its subscribers.

Instead of asking for physical collateral, CardPesa assesses the borrower’s creditworthiness and loan limits using five Cs – the borrower’s character, capacity, capital, available conditions in the environment and collateral – which in this case is in form of one’s biodata, references and one’s business or workplace.

According to Victoria Birungi, the Card Pesa Head of Operations, the company is committed to funding everyone’s hustle for as long as you prove that you are involved in a profitable activity, need money and have the capacity to repay.

“We are extending loans for business and emergency services to different types of people. To get started, you are required to sign up to the platform by visiting www.cardpesa.com/signup. After signing up, our team gets in touch with you and your submitted references to confirm that the information you have given us is actually correct. Depending on how responsive you are, you will be able to access funds within 48 hours,” Birungi said;

She added: “At the end of the day, all the steps you go through help find out that you are involved in an economic activity so that we are able to fund your hustle.”

Basing on one’s credit history on the platform, their limits can be increased to millions and even given better service plus longer repayment periods. To provide the loan service, Card Pesa integrated into Airtel Money, MoMo Pay and banks to easily provide instant credit to its clients.

Card Pesa is the third participant to be showcased in the 2022 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing, generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three will cover physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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Kawu is using FinTech to make school life a joy to live

Our Reporter.

The word Kawu must be familiar to whoever attended boarding schools in Uganda. Kawu is that period in a boarding school when a student’s pocket money and grab – read packed eats and drinks – are over and the only thing left to feed on are the meals served by the school kitchen. These meals are usually porridge, posho and beans.

The word Kawu is an abbreviation for Kawunga (Posho) and Kawukuumi (beans weevils) served in most schools.  

After going through long spells of Kawu, a group of young Ugandans don’t wish to see others in boarding schools suffer the same fate. As such, they came up with a digital solution for managing student’s pocket money and expenditure.

Named Kawu, the platform allows students to safely keep their money and spend it without wastage. It enables parents and guardians to periodically send money to students, manage their expenditure and also teach them financial discipline.

“In the past, the arrangement has been that parents and guardians leave money with teachers, matrons, wardens and canteen attendants. The student would then go and ask for the money whenever they need to spend. Sometimes, those left with the cash, get emergencies and end up spending this money with hope of refunding it. This arrangement is tiresome, risky, time consuming and doesn’t benefit those that keep the money,” Steven Kakooza, a director at Kawu Uganda explained the rationale behind the Kawu platform.

He added: “But with Kawu, a student has a smart card which s/he uses to make payments at school canteen and also withdraw money in case a need for cash arises. The teachers, matrons, wardens and canteen attendants are the agents that enable the transactions. They get a commission for this. All they need is a smartphone to enable the transactions. A student only needs to have the Kawu smart card. For the parents, they just need to log on to the APP, send money to the student’s smart card, and set periodic expenditure limits. Kawu benefits all stakeholders.”

Since rolling out the platform at the start of the year, Kawu is already active in 20 schools and serving over 1,000 students.

“We have received a lot of positive reception everywhere we have gone. We are actually overwhelmed by the requests from different schools that want to enroll on to Kawu. Over 90 per cent of the schools we visit wish to have their students on Kawu. The team is now focusing on ensuring that we are able to accommodate the huge numbers that we are bringing on board. We are very optimistic that thanks to Kawu platform, Uganda’s students are going to become cashless very soon.”

According to Kakooza, Uganda’s financial inclusion story should include everyone regardless of age and location.

“People always admire the flowers but ignore the roots yet without roots, the flowers couldn’t grow. For our case, we are enhancing financial inclusion and teaching financial literacy right from schools so that by the time these students leave school, they are equipped with sufficient knowledge to do better financially,” Kakooza said.

Kawu Uganda Limited is the second participant in the 2022 40 Days 40 Fintechs initiative.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing, generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three will cover physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

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AgriShare is using FinTech to improve farmers’ livelihood as Season Three of 40 Days 40 FinTechs kicks off

Our Reporter.

No serious storyteller can narrate Uganda’s post-independence story without giving prominence to the famous Luweero triangle. It is that pivotal but that is a story for another day.

For decades, farmers in Uganda have earned very little, sometimes nothing from their produce and farmland due to issues such as failure to source the right inputs, absence of modernization equipment and inability to access ready markets among others.

But this may soon be a thing of the past, if the latest developments in the sector are anything to go by.

Based in Luweero, a group of youth is taking lead in the modernization and commercialization of Agriculture. They are doing this through a digital-based platform named AgriShare.

AgriShare is a social enterprise which uses mobile digital technology to connect farmers to services like land for hire, tractors, irrigation equipment, and labor and value addition equipment.

The web-based application is also targeting youth, Uganda’s largest population cluster who grapple with unemployment.

Launched in Uganda in 2021, AgriShare already has over 15,000 subscribers and over 10,000 transactions. Even so, AgriShare’s story started in Zimbabwe in 2017 where over 50,000 people are using the platform. Encouraged by this success, the platform is now expanding in other African countries with Malawi next in queue, with a launch planned for this year.  

Agro-based Economy.

Agriculture in Uganda employs more than 70 per cent people, but Ugandan farmers are also the poorest. Farm productivity is substance-based because of the absence of equipment and other essential farming services.

“Over 70% of land in Uganda is arable for agriculture, yet less than 30% is under cultivation. Predominantly, the most used tools used are rudimentary. Admittedly, they are most times too expensive to afford. The twist is though, as some struggle to get equipment, others have them lying idle,” says Paul Zaake, the Managing Director at AgriShare.

Zaake says he has built a network of agents to help farmers and service providers, who may not be familiar with smart phones.

“All we are doing is to change the way Agriculture is done in Uganda. We are here to improve food security. But most importantly, we are here to ensure that farmers have joy, create employment and boost our economy,” Zaake noted. 

How it works

Any farmer with a smartphone can download the Agrishare app and order equipment like labor, irrigation pumps, and resources like land and labor.

On the other side, a farmer with excess or idle resources can list them on the Agrishare application and earn extra money when they are hired out. In a nutshell, the application is where resource owners meet resource-seekers.

With concerns of low smartphone penetration and high internet charges, Agrishare has agents spread across the country, to help farmers book or list resources.

AgriShare is the first participant to be featured on the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative, season three that has officially got underway today, the 13th of June, 2022.

40-Days 40-FinTechs

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing, generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three will cover physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.