Author: Nicholas

Our Reporter.

A growing number of businesses and buyers in Africa are increasingly embracing e-commerce, thanks to COVID-19 that saw governments enforce restrictions on people movement to control the spread of the deadly virus.

The shift to online shopping has not only opened a window of opportunities for businesses to sell within their country but also across borders, necessitating innovative and dependable payment methods.

While some companies have just woken up to this opportunity, Flutterwave, a payments technology company foresaw this coming about three years ago and innovated a platform that supports cross border payments.

The firm was founded by a team of ex-bankers, entrepreneurs and engineers including Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, with a view of providing technology and building digital payments infrastructure for Africa to connect it to the global economy and vice versa and enable businesses receive and make payments across Africa and globally.

The San Francisco headquartered payments Technology Company with operations and offices across Africa and Europe, has over the years focused on revolutionising e-payments across markets, including Uganda, where it launched in 2018.

“One thing we observed as Flutterwave was that Africa had begun going on a journey to solve its payments problem and products like mobile money and M-Pesa were prevalent but there was no one who was able to cover the entire continent.

“So as Flutterwave, we embarked on  a journey to build one Application Programming Interface (API), that could set all payments methods; today, if you are a client who wants to go across Africa selling across Africa, you don’t have to do various integrations everywhere you go,” Nielsimms Sangho, the Country Lead at Flutterwave Uganda, said.

He explained that while a buyer in Uganda could see a product online they were interested in being sold in a different market like Nigeria, they could not buy it because there was no way a payment could be effected. That has, however, since changed, thanks to the Flutterwave payments gateway that facilitates that.

The firm operates in over 45 countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, among others.

Solutions offered

Flutterwave offers several solutions including checkout, a solution that gives users an easy way to collect payments from their customers anywhere in the world, via web or mobile and a cash issuing and management solution, which helps businesses create and manage virtual cards on their card issuing platforms.

The other solutions are a Flutterwave store, which helps businesses sell online, Flutterwave invoicing which helps businesses create professional invoices easily, get paid and track payments and a payments links that enable businesses receive payments with ease without a website or integration.

Its flagship product, Rave, which enables merchants to accept payments from cards, bank accounts, and mobile money is being used by over 45,000 merchants in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa and currently handles at least 2 million transactions per month.

Merchants like Uber, TranferWise, FlyWire, booking.com among others are using the Rave product.

The technology firm has received several prestigious awards including the “Best Technology Platform” awarded by The Asian Banker and the Top 100 Fintech Firms, among others.

Focus on women

Sangho also noted that the firm has a bias for women, across all the markets it operates. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, Sangho said that the company gives a seed capital to women-founded businesses.

“We realised that ordinarily, women have not had as much opportunity as men, especially in business in Africa and so we want to hold their hands and give them access to capital. The company also has a great team of women as staff because we believe in giving opportunity to women,” he said.

He, however, explained that they push their products across, irrespective of one’s gender.

About 40-days-40-Fintechs

Flutterwave is among the companies taking part in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative that seeks to enable Financial Technology Companies innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs, acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The initiative is being organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya said the 40-days-40-FinTech initiative is a unique platform that seeks to advocate and support the digital transformation agenda.

He noted that digital inclusion is very important if any country, especially in Africa, is to achieve financial inclusion.

“One of the important elements for us to consider in the digital transformation story is understanding the entire story that before you have digital inclusion, you will never get anyone achieve financial inclusion in this age and time,” he said.

He also alluded to the need to secure payment platforms, saying that without that, people will lose trust and confidence in the digital payments systems.

“Without cyber security, you cannot achieve full financial inclusion because if there is a lot of fraud and businesses losing money in an ecosystem that is not secure, people will not use it; they will keep it in their bags or assets and in the end, we shall not have money to grow the economy,” Kawooya said.

Our Reporter.

It may still be a nascent industry but Uganda is increasingly making huge leaps in the digital payment technologies space.

Huge sums of money; be it person-to-person payments or business transactions, are being transacted conveniently, thanks to the innovativeness put up by Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) such as Pegasus Technologies.

Established in 2007, the company has over the years gained prominence in the development of financial solutions for companies, emerging as a leading payment services aggregator in Uganda with vast experience in development, configuration, deployment, support and maintenance of financial and billing solutions for businesses and institutions.

It has for instance over the years developed solutions, including mobile money aggregation, mobile payments and remittances, loans and savings, software development and value added services such as SMS, airtime and data loading.

Its flagship product, PegPay payments platform, is currently being used by several institutions including banks, telecoms and utility companies such, retailers, Pay-Tv providers’ and schools, to aggregate and manage financial transactions for both internal and external purposes.

According to the company’s Projects Manager – Joshua Mandela, their platform is a robust and scalable payments system that handles over Ushs1.7trillion in transaction volumes annually for its aggregated partners.

How the solutions work

Under the mobile money aggregation solution, Mandela said, an organisation is able to collect money through a USSD, mobile application or web application. Organizations are also able to effect payments to their end user beneficiaries, either using the Pegasus platform or through their own platforms after being integrated with an Application Programming Interface (API).

The mobile payments and remittances solution on the other hand enables organizations to effect mobile payouts in bulk. One is only required to load a list of the beneficiaries and the amount to be paid out and money is sent through a preferred mobile money service provider platform.

To facilitate remittances, Pegasus partnered with several companies abroad to enable Ugandans in the diaspora send money home via mobile money.

Under the loans and savings platform, the FinTech partnered with companies that offer credit to end-users. One is only required to sign up on the platform of the company they want to get a loan from and fill in a loan request form. Once the company approves the loan, it sends the money to Pegasus, which then sends it to the intended beneficiary through a mobile money API. To payback or to save, money can be sent to the company’s account through the Pegasus our mobile money API.

Interoperability

 

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya commended Pegasus for its great role in accelerating financial inclusion in Uganda and for taking part in the 40-days-40-FinTechs project.

Alluding to a declaration he made at the FinTech Connect Conference in London in December last year, Kawooya said the next most disruptive innovation in technology is going to be financial technology and that it is likely to come from Africa and probably Uganda.

He explained that while talking about tools for accelerating financial inclusion, one of the most important things that is key in supporting this is interoperability.

“Today, the global community of financial technology believes that interoperability is one of the important avenues to use to accelerate financial inclusion and one of the ways to do that is to work with an open-source like Mojaloop to facilitate this,” he said, alluding to the Mojaloop software that seeks to boost financial inclusion by addressing the financial interoperability challenges in Africa.

To achieve interoperability, Kawooya said that collaboration is key.

“To facilitate collaboration, we will hold the 40-days-40 FinTechs project annually to ensure that those players that have innovative solutions that have changed how financial technology and financial inclusion is done are showcased and ensure that their stories are promoted to move further,” Kawooya said.

Pegasus is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiatives organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

Pegasus also offers e-commerce services where organisations with websites or mobile applications are allowed to vend their services online and receive payments online.

It also provides wallet services, merchant collections, agency banking, e-banking, mobile banking and a solution that links dairy farmers and their respective cooperatives in Ssembabule and Kibogo districts. Under this solution, farmers take their milk to the cooperative, which sells it, collects the money and disburse it to farmers via mobile money.

Our Reporter.

While Europe, America and Asia, the main trading partners with Africa are increasingly getting cashless, over 90 per cent of the population in Africa still adores cash.

This not only renders the continent uncompetitive but has also played a great part in promoting money laundering on the continent.

According to Brookings, illicit financial flows from Africa between 1980 and 2018, were estimated at about USD 1.3 trillion ( UGX4,827 trillion), which is 50 times Uganda’s GDP. This is detrimental to the continent’s financial and economic development.

However, in a bid to play a role in facilitating a shift from cash to cashless, several players have come up. One of these is Xente Limited, a Financial Technology (FinTech) company that delivers traditional financial services in a technical manner, using technology.

Established in 2017 by Allan Rwakatungu and his co-founders, the firm connects African businesses and consumers to the digital global economy.

According to the company’s chief marketing and communications officer, Lyn Tukei, the FinTech created a platform that handles all sorts of non-cash payments ranging from mobile money to card payments such as Visa and MasterCard to pay for goods and services whereever in the world and pay utility bills.

The Xente App can also be used to get loans, book tickets, buy airtime as well as doing online sales of goods and services.

The company boasts of over 50,000 subscribers across the continent. However, the company targets to connect 100 million African people and 50,000 African businesses to the global digital economy over the next 10 years. This, she believes will enable them to help buyers and sellers upgrade to the digital financial economy.

According to Tukei, Xente seeks to help Africa emerge from the old economy where systems are inefficient, informal and people using cash, to seamlessly join the new digital economy of using cashless options to enable the continent compete favourably.

They company also targets to onboard 1,500 Micro and Medium Sized Enterprise (MMEs) merchants onto the Xente platform, especially Ugandan owned businesses. Special focus will be paid to women and youth lead enterprises.

Infrastructure key

According to Tukei, this will be done through the provision of adequate technology infrastructure that connects consumers, businesses and sellers to get to the digital platforms. Using the App also enables users to get access to credit, savings and insurance.

The company also hopes to enhance their financial services value proposition with features like Release payment on Delivery, Instant settlement, Forex payments or buyers from foreign countries and insurance in case of damage or non-delivery. This will help address the trust challenges always faced in the digital economy.

Xente, which is among the firms participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative, also intends to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative by enabling trade between customers and merchants in Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

The 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

It seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya commended Xente for the innovation.

“We believe in the works of digital transformation and looking at the numbers you envision to reach, it is a big target but it is achievable because time has come for financial inclusion to become the internet,” Kawooya said.

He added: “We are now on the journey of building the internet of money, which is going to change everything. Digital is now more value additional; it is no longer about sharing pictures. Facebook is now opening up shops and making sure that everyone sells what they have.”

Kawooya said the 40-days-40-FinTechs is an innovative initiative, saying that it is the first time it is happening anywhere in the world.

“We are doing this with passion because we believe that when each one of you plays a role in the ecosystem, then we will be able to transform millions of lives.

“We are happy to celebrate financial inclusion because whenever we have such discussions, we are sure we are helping the world get closer to achieving full financial inclusion,” he said.

Our Reporter.

With huge traffic congestion in most African cities, the easiest way for one to travel from one point to another is by using a motorcycle, commonly known as Boda Boda in Uganda.

Although this is the fastest means of transport that beats any manner of traffic jam, the only challenge comes with safety, as most Boda Boda cyclists ride recklessly.

However, while some people chose to just lament about the reckless habits of the Boda Boda riders, Ricky Thomson Rapa, a school dropout, saw a huge opportunity.

The loss of his close friend in a Boda Boda accident in 2012, triggered his mind and he started advocating for road safety for Boda-Boda riders and users, by encouraging them to wear helmets.

Although he had an idea of professionalizing Boda Boda riding, especially around Kampala, it did not come to fruition until late 2014 when he teamed up Maxime Dieudonne and Alastair Sussock.

This saw the birth of SafeBoda Uganda, a community of entrepreneurs and Boda Boda riders working together to improve professional standards across the urban transportation industry in Africa.

The company deploys technology to connect with its customers through an Application (app) which users use to hail a Boda Boda using their smartphones, thus ensuring safe access to mobility.

According to Nicholas Kamanzi, the Head of payment at SafeBoda, the company currently has over 18,000 professionally trained riders in Kampala, serves over 500,000 customers in Kampala, Uganda and increasingly continues to innovate to meet its customers’ changing tastes.

In a space of five years, it has promoted safe and professional standards in the transportation industry and has encouraged a network of riders who are responsible, foresighted, entrepreneurial and well clued on customer care.

This has increased safety on the roads, improved the livelihoods of many boda-boda riders through aspects of microcredit and micro insurance and also made transport around the city easier, comfortable and more reliable.

Expansion

In addition to Uganda, the company has scaled to other parts of Africa including Mombasa and Nairobi (Kenya), and Ibadan (Nigeria) with the aim of improving the transportation industry for both riders and passengers by increasing the number of safe trips taken per day and by making travel around the cities convenient and stress-free.

In 2017, the company launched a SafeBoda wallet to allow passengers plan their trips better by getting money from their mobile money accounts into their SafeBoda wallet for easy settlement of the fares.

For convenience, Kamanzi said that the company expanded the avenues through which customers would load their wallets by allowing customers to request any Safe Boda rider randomly found on the road to deposit for them on the wallet. Additionally, customers can also use merchants in the ecosystem to deposit in the wallet.

Other products

In addition to paying for trips, SafeBoda also allows customers to use money in their wallets to buy airtime from the different networks, buy food from the different restaurants and sharing with friends, among others

It also partnered with banks to allow SafeBoda riders to save for their future. Under this, a rider agrees to the amount that should be taken off for a specific developmental target, then retrieved after a given period. This is on top of the other financial services like loans rendered to the riders. SafeBoda has a tier IV license that allows them to give loans to its riders.

SafeBoda also collaborated with a third-party asset provider to allow its riders access assets on loans like motorcycles and life insurances service.

According to Kamanzi this financial technology advancement has improved the lives of the riders.

40-days-40-FinTechs initiative

Safe Boda is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiatives, organised by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya alluded to how the FinTech landscape in Uganda has grown over the last five years, noting that there are currently over 67 FinTechs in the country today, doing amazing work.

“We are here because we believe in the work of financial technology and the players that have been doing the donkeywork to make sure there is better service provision, affordability, accessibility and transparency and services becoming more secure each day,” he said.

He noted that among the tools that have been used to bridge a gap, especially in value addition services, is technology, which is a carrier of payment gateways that ensure that everyone can be able to pay off their wallet.

Kawooya added that HIPipo is kin at promoting secure digital financial services, given their virtual role in promoting financial inclusion.

“We believe that one of the most important thing to do is to ensure that people can access financial services because an economy that includes everyone benefits everyone,” he said.

Our Reporter.

When RG-Consult started working on the Nakasero Market portal that would allow people to order for groceries from the market and have them delivered to their residences, little did they know that it would become popular in a short time.

However, the lockdown that followed the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda, forcing the government to institute control measures to constrain its spread, was a blessing in disguise for the East African 360 creative, production, experiential marketing, events management and consulting company.

While many business people sulked over the lockdown, RG-Consult was smiling; it was an opportunity to popularize their new platform.

It was an opportunity to fast-track the development of its Nakasero Market portal, an online platform that allows people to buy groceries from the comfort of their homes and have them delivered to them conveniently; especially that government had banned both private and public means of transport.

Bridgette Nisha Ampurira, the RG Consults Team Manager said that while they had planned the App and were already working on the portal, COVID-19 accelerated the development and introduction onto the market.

“This product became much more important and relevant because of the current situation we are in. The website www.nakaseromarket.ug is receiving a lot of traffic. Our App is ready and will be rolled out soon,” Ampurira said.

People ordering groceries can pay through mobile money, Visa Card or cash on delivery. The company has a fleet of boda bodas which do the home deliveries.

Following the success of the Nakasero Market portal, Ampurira said the company has also secured other domains for popular traditional markets, as part of its bigger expansion plan.

The company, which is among the Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) taking part in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative, also offers other products including the sell of tickets for different events, online.

The company has also ventured into organizing online concerts, where people pay for a show and they are provided with a link through which they can access and watch the show live.

It is registered in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya said the 40 days 40 fintechs initiative seeks to support innovative FinTechs to ensure that they create more jobs and ensure that more people are financially included.

He, however, expressed concern that despite the technology sector playing critical role in scaling financial inclusion over the years, the sector has not been given sufficient attention.

“For instance, if a bank today has 150,000 mobile wallets, they praise the bank first before they talk about the person that created the technology.

“For 15 years, HiPipo has been advocating for digital transformation, starting with Music. We wanted to show that you can use technology to change so many lives. About 10 years ago, we took it to financial inclusion; we wanted to ensure that we streamline and get people on board. Our input has played a great part in the amazing growth of mobile financial services you see today,” Kawooya said.

Kawooya said that HiPipo will ensure that FinTechs like RG-Consults are equipped with emerging technologies such as Mojaloop – a financial technology software that will help them design interoperable payments solutions to enable them cut costs and also serve a wider market, using a shared payment platform.

“Mojaloop will help you create a financial eco-system that can communicate easily with others platforms to enable you supply products anywhere and get payments seamlessly,” he said.

The 40-days-40 FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne program, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

It seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

Kawooya pledged to offer free consultancy for the participating Fintechs that could be having technological challenges.

Our Reporter.

The payment industry is increasingly experiencing a high level of disruption that is reshaping the payments space, thanks to a surge of new technology-driven processes.

Operated by Financial Technology Companies (FinTech), the digital applications are enabling users to take payments to the next level in terms of speed, efficiency and convenience.

And one firm that has greatly contributed to this disruption in Uganda is Craft Silicon, a Kenyan headquartered FinTech that provides customized banking solutions for the financial sector across the world.

Craft Silicon was founded in 2000 when Kamal Budhabhatti developed an application to help manage expenses. It was then adopted by Micro Finance institutions before it later evolved into a core banking system dubbed the Bankers Realm in a space of two years.

Over the years, the FinTech has risen to become a market leader owing its success to the innovativeness.

It has over 35 commercial banks and 150 Micro Finance institutions on its core banking and core Micro Finance products, respectively.

According to the firm’s Uganda team leader John Baptist Ochieng, the FinTech is inspired by the desire to innovate so as to make financial products available and accessible to the target audiences easily and conveniently.

In addition to the core banking system, the firm is also a key player in the mobile banking; it has innovated mobile banking platforms for over 150 banking customers, connected to over 14 African countries. According to Ochieng, the company handles over 1.6 million transactions daily.

Under the mobile banking platform, one is able to pull money from their bank account into the mobile money wallet and vice versa.

It also facilitates bill payments for utility companies such as National Water and Sewerage Corporation and Umeme, buying airtime and loan access via mobile phones.

“As need arises every day for financial inclusion, we innovate around that to see that everyone can access their money or pay bills, loans and the like,” Ochieng said.

Other products are self-account opening for connected banks, agency banking, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for SMEs, an e-voucher system for farmers being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries and a payment gateway for the  National Information Technology Authority that allows interoperability for all government ministries, departments and agencies.

It is also working on another product that targets merchants’ payment, where one can pull money from bank account and pay directly for goods and services.

“We are committed to growing financial inclusion in the country and Africa as a whole,” Ochieng said.

Efforts.

Different stakeholders including the government and the private sector are playing a critical role to ensure that they reduce the number of people who are still financially excluded.

According to the 2018 FinScope survey, financial inclusion in Uganda increased to 78%, driven mainly by mobile money services.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya said that technology in Africa is a prime sector that everyone wants to be a part of and that it is playing a critical role in transforming millions of lives through financial inclusion.

He commended Craft Silicon for a great team of energetic youth, which he said are doing everything it takes to ensure that the world achieves full financial inclusion.

“We are truly excited to engage with Craft Silicon in the great series of 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative because it is only right that we shine a spotlight on a company that has played a tremendous role is breaking down digital barriers and bringing millions of people on the continent into the digital transactional space,” he said.

Craft Silicon is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiatives organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using latest technology such the Mojaloop open source software.

Our Reporter.

The Ugandan economy is heavily weighted in international trade, especially as an importer, mainly from China.

Despite this, traders were finding challenges with cross-border payments as they involved multiple parties, currencies, regulations and risks.

However, in a bid to make international payment more accessible and efficient to businesses, Ugmart, a Financial Technology Company (FinTech) has come in to bridge the gap.

The company focuses on providing secure and seamless electronic payment solutions for both small and medium enterprises and large enterprises, delivering reliable merchant services that allow businesses to transact seamlessly.

The company provides financial technology that includes payment solutions along with mobile and web application development. These range from prepaid credit cards, Mobile Point-Of-Sale (POS) to e-wallet payments.

The e-wallet product for instance is a merchant product that allows one to put money in the wallet and be able to transact from anywhere in the world.

According to Patrick Kizito, the Ugmart chief executive officer, the wallet offers an easy way to move money around the round, ensures safety of one’s funds, eliminates exchange rate risks and offers flexibility.

Ugmart works with a number of electronic money issuers including Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay, among others.

Additionally, the company offers a WebPay product that allows businesses to receive money from a different electronic money service provider from across the world and be able to push the money onto a bank account, in that country’s local currency.

This product is mainly for businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants and schools, among others.

Further, UGMart has a wallet product for schools that enables parents and pupils to manage pocket money effectively. The product enables parents to deposit their kids’ pocket money on an account which is accessible at the school through a POS machine and a unique smart card for each student.

Ugmart currently has over 200,000 users collectively, according to Kizito.

Ugmart is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs project, an initiative organised by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne programme, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO – Innocent Kawooya said: “I am excited to hear that Ugmart is helping people to trade across the seas, especially with China using a wallet that is dedicated to ensure that their money is safe and accessible wherever they are.”

He added: “The fact that you are already onboarding a number of service providers – union, visa, mastercard, mobile financial services, you are already thinking of making sure that everyone is included.”

He noted that as a people-centric brand, HiPipo is mindful and would like to ensure that it supports FinTechs which are using technology to solves the challenges facing Africa so as to play a role in the fight against poverty.

The 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative is expected to climax with the FinTechs Landscape Exhibition on July 16-17, 2020.

Kawooya noted that while the initiative seeks to shine a light on prime stories that are changing millions of lives across Africa, it will also validate the fact that Africans do not just copying technology from developed countries, but rather innovating solutions that speak to the challenges facing Africans.

“The financial technology that the western world is thinking about is meant to solve challenges of the future, may be 20 years from now but not the current challenges facing Africa. It is Africans that are innovating the exact solutions that we need now,” Kawooya said.

Our Reporter.  

While most Ugandans describe land as the key to wealth, leaving it idle for years is not a smart idea.

In Uganda, it is not unusual for one to leave their piece of land vacant for years because they do not have funds to develop it.

Even though it appreciates in value over time, the returns may not be commensurate if it had been developed.

To help more Ugandans harness the potential of their land assets, Buladde, a Savings and Credit Co-operative organisation (Sacco) was born in 2016, to help the Buganda Land Board staff to improve their security of tenure, develop their land and improve their way of living through savings and borrowing.

“We discovered that most people did not have money to secure their land, they cannot get money to survey their land or even finish their houses. So we decided  to start a Sacco where people could save and take credit to develop their land,” John Mark Golooba, the  Buladde Financial Services General Manager said.

From 80 members in 2016, Buladde currently has a total membership of 2,553 members as of December 2019 and about sh1.12 billion has been disbursed out in loans in the last 4 years.

Although credit was initially for land-related developments, Golooba said that they later realised that people need credit to do other developmental projects such as business.

Despite the growth, Golooba said the Sacco has been grappling with a number of challenges including some people wanting to access credit yet they do not want to save.

“Most of our people do not have a good saving culture and we discovered that such people also find it had to re-pay loans. However, Buladde came to change this narrative; we empower our members to develop themselves, borrow at affordable rates and repay in a convenient period,” Golooba said.

He, however, said that the saving culture is constrained by the manual process of saving and accessing credit, which makes it hard for members from far districts such as Masaka to diligently save and also access their savings when they need to.

Technology

Golooba, however, noted that the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the government to institute measures to constrain movement of people has opened their eyes about the importance of adopting the use of technology.

“Technology is very important for Saccos; banks and mobile money come in handy as we deliver our services. We are pleased to be part of the 40-days-40-FinTechs project and looking forward to improving our systems to further serve our clients,” he said.

Buladde is one of the entities participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs project, an initiative of HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya commended Buladde for the initiative to promote savings and credit through a niche product – land, but urged them to embrace technology, saying that currently, it relates to every sector.

“This is an intriguing product; you realised that you are in control of land that is usually an asset for security in every financial institution. If you are to give a loan, you know where to start from in case you need any recoveries. This is a niche centric product that is not only helping people understand finance but are also helping people learn good financial habits like savings,” Kawooya said.

He added: “The main role of financial technology is to improve financial inclusion and you are already doing that; you are already encouraging very many people to save money and also extending out credit to help people improve their businesses.”

Kawooya pledged to help Buladde get a test platform free of charge within about six months, so as to onboard its members on a digital system, powered by Mojaloop. 

Our Reporter.

Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies – digital representation of value that are digitally traded and act as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value, are increasingly being adopted across the world.

They are steadily playing a critical role in helping countries across the globe drive their financial inclusion and the cashless economy agenda.

One firm that is playing in this field is Sqoin Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, a Tunisia based Financial Technology (FinTech) start-up, seeking to democratise cryptocurrencies, lobby to get out of the grey zone, and also enable people adopt the token economy.

Mohamed Ali Belajouza, the Sqoin co-founder and chief business officer said that Sqoin is driven by the best promises blockchain technology offers to the population, including helping to boost financial inclusion.

He said that after a lot of effort to create all the software for an African Cryptocurrency, dubbed Bastoji, the Sqoin team is now focusing on tokenised payment systems and related software development.

Products

The firm offers a number of products including cryptocurrencies, community currencies and the token economy and asset tokenisation.

Belajouza said cryptocurrency has a bright future, especially in the financial inclusion aspect and low-fees fund transfers.

To offer the community currencies product, Sqoin partnered with Coinsence, another start-up that aims to empower people with community crypto tokens.

Under the token economy and asset tokenisation, Belajouza said that it is a future proof concept, with a roadmap for the product, VERSA – a blockchain based internal payment system that considerably reduces fees for businesses.

Challenges

He, however, said the products are faced with a challenge of slow adoption as people are not yet familiar with neither the concept nor the technology.

Additionally, he said the regulatory environment of cryptocurrencies is also still a grey zone yet tokens are not regulated at all.

It should be noted that transactions on this platform are made over the internet and there is no central authority that processes transactions. Users are anonymous and identified only by their virtual identities.

He also added that while they need strong partners to co-exist in their dreamy market so as to facilitate geo-scaling, the partners are not easy to come by.

Despite the challenges, there are also immense opportunities and one of them is the regulatory sandboxes, which Belajouza said is opening Tunisia and other North African countries to innovate and test their products on the market before being rolled out.  He, however, noted that they are working closely with the central bank to define a scope.

The other opportunity is inherent in the tech they are using; Belajouza said decentralisation is on-going and they are part of it, adding that financial inclusion is becoming more important.

40 days 40 FinTechs.

Sqoin Blockchain and Cryptocurrency is among the firms participating in the 40-days-40 FinTechs initiative, which is organised by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne program, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

Belajouza commended HiPipo for the initiative, saying that they want to master Mojaloop for use in crypto and tokens so as to bridge the gap with other stakeholder in the transaction loop.

“After studying the Mojaloop software potential, we found it a great way to address global problems, and a great technical starting point to grow and talk to key accounts for adoption,” he said.

For equality, Belajouza said Sqoin believes in gender equity, noting that more than half of their team are women. He added that being a woman is an asset to integrate their team.

“In terms of project, we are working with conscience under the SDG label empowering women on a use case with community currencies for women,” he said.

Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo CEO said thanked Sqoin for playing a major role in helping the world achieve full financial inclusion soon, rather than later.

“It is so amazing, how much Sqoin is leveraging blockchain technology, especially the inter leger protocol to create seamless, secure and bulk payment solutions. HiPipo pledges to introduce them to as many FinTech professionals as possible, to ensure they are equipped with enough skills and knowledge about emerging tools like Mojaloop that are helping to create affordable interoperable payment systems.”