Updates

Uganda is an agro based economy. As a result of this, efforts to modernize agriculture and make it much more profitable are always welcome. 

In the last one decade, several initiatives aimed at transforming agriculture have been rolled out. While many have yielded positive results, some failed badly. However, those focused on digitizing the agricultural value chain continue to flourish.

Among the entities that are offering digital services to hundreds of farmers is MobiPay; a platform that seeks to revolutionize the agricultural sector, making it more efficient, transparent, and inclusive.

“We are an Agri-FinTech that provides technological services to farming communities. Part of our main work is to ensure that farmers can have access to digital services, able to receive payments for their products, able to pay for inputs digitally and also access a wider market. We were established in 2016 and went to the market in 2017. We have both the MobiPay and Agrosys platforms which are both integrated to offer seamless services to farmers,” Eric Nana Kwabena Agyei, the Founder of MobiPay AgroSys Limited said.

He added: “Together with my co-founder we did some study in 2015. We wanted to find out if financial institutions were willing to lend to smallholder farmers. What we found out was that small holder farmers had a major risk because they didn’t have data of what they had been doing. We noticed that this high risk made it hard for financial institutions to lend to the farmers. Even input providers couldn’t extend credit due to lack of data. So, we decided to create a platform that would use technology to make farmers credit worthy and able to access all these services.”

Mr Nana Kwabena noted that currently they are operating with about 400,000 farmers across Uganda with about 25 per cent of these being active currently and happy with the MobiPay service.

“We are working across 86 districts in Uganda. We have offices in the East, North and Kampala. We are also working with about 240 agents. Most of the farmers we are working with belong to cooperatives. But a farmer who doesn’t belong to any farmer group or cooperative can directly reach out to us and we shall gladly serve them. But currently, over 90 per cent of our customers come from farmer groups.”

The key services that MobiPay offers are access to inputs, market match & access to market information, access to Agricultural training, Agriculture diagnosis and access to Agronomy services.

MobiPay has featured on Day 25 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Many businesses in Uganda have in the last four years expanded from merely physical businesses to embracing e-commerce as a reliable way of trading. While many businesses have accepted e-commerce, most of them continue to face several hurdles when it comes to receiving and making payments. This mainly affects the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) that don’t have the capacity to invest in ‘inhouse’ payment management systems.

However, there are players on the market that have innovated solutions to address this and make e-commerce a worthwhile undertaking. Among the organizations that are offering reliable payment management services for businesses is Flutterwave – one of Africa’s very few Unicorns.

“Flutterwave is Africa’s largest payment company. We facilitate seamless payments across Africa. In Uganda, we offer different products. These include a send APP – which is a platform that allows people mainly those in the diaspora to send and receive money across the continent. We also have Flutterwave for Business which is our flagship product. This allows businesses to be able to accept payments and make payments off our platform 24/7,” Arnold Kwesiga, the Flutterwave AVP for Global Expansion, Payments and Partnerships for East Africa said.

He added: “Flutterwave for business offers a 24/7 shopping experience. It gives more than value for money as it provides a one stop center for displaying and selling products, receiving payments and making payments. You are able to look at your business dynamics and performance all on the same platform.”

Kwesiga noted that small businesses only need minimum requirements before they get onboarded and start transacting on Flutterwave.

“For small businesses, we only need to know the kind of business they do, their registration and legal status. Once we receive this and conclude our due diligence, we will then onboard the business on our platform and give them a merchant ID. After this, we then guide the business on how to transact. We are able to collect their payments whether it is through mobile money on bank cards. Similarly, after collecting this money, we then settle the business based on their payment and time preference – this may be mobile money or bank transfer.  Some businesses want to be settled weekly, after two weeks or monthly.”

He further noted that Flutterwave is fully regulated and licensed by Bank of Uganda under the National Payment Systems (NPS) Act, 2020.

Flutterwave has featured on Day 24 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Though expensive, quality healthcare is a basic need and somewhat a human right! Unfortunately, in low developed countries, quality healthcare is a preserve for the rich and those connected to big organizations that offer health insurance packages. This thus leaves out the less privileged who, unfortunately are the overwhelming majority. 

In a move to mitigate this and effectively close the access to quality healthcare gap, innovators are developing solutions that enable even the poor to save in preparation for the bad, ‘rainy’ days.

One such platform is clinicPesa; an African financial technology start-up that enables its customers to save as low as UGX 500 towards their healthcare needs in addition to extending healthcare loans to customers who come face to face with high medical bills over and above their savings.

“What we do at clinicPesa is that we enable those without access to healthcare financing to save for healthcare. We are a digital wallet that enables our customers to save and also use our loan offerings to pay and clear their medical bills at so many healthcare facilities that we have partnered with across the country,” Eng. Chrispinus Onyancha, the Founder and CEO at clinicPesa noted.

He added: “To implement this, we have partnered with MTN MoMo and those without smartphones only dial *165*44# and get started. Those with smart phones, only have to download our APP from the Play Store, create an account and they are good to go.” 

Among the key unique features that this platform offers is the clinicPesa Mamas; a product designed to help expectant mothers plan and effectively prepare for the entire pregnancy journey from antenatal to delivery and postnatal care.

“clinicPesa MaMa’s is a behaviorally driven mobile money maternal health savings account platform that empowers expectant women and couples to access timely savings towards maternity care, birth preparedness kits, up keep, as well as afford transportation to the healthcare center, hence enabling them afford safe child delivery.”

Eng. Onyancha noted that clinicPesa is currently available in over 2700 healthcare facilities spread across Uganda.

“We started in 2017 and today, we have over 1.6 million customers on our clinicPesa platform. In the past 12 months alone, we onboarded over 800,000 new customers. We partnering with over 2700 healthcare centres spread across all corners of the country. These include clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies.”

He revealed that clinicPesa is both licensed and regulated by the Bank of Uganda.

“We hold two bank of Uganda licenses. That is the payment system operator license and payment service provider license. The regulations by Bank of Uganda mean that people’s funds are protected and safe from misuse.”

clinicPesa has featured on Day 23 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The hard-economic times mean that every now and then, many people are always seeking for financial assistance. Family and friends are always the most immediate people for seeking for financial help but in circumstances where they too are broke, then borrowing from money lenders is the only way out.

Unfortunately, getting money from credit institutions is a nightmare. Financial institutions like Banks, Saccos and microfinances are closed to members, ask for so much paperwork and their processes can drag on for weeks and months thus defeating the actual purpose of seeking for the loan. On the other hand, loan sharks always have money available immediately but their interest rates and terms are unrealistic and indefensible.

Nonetheless, in the middle of this suffering and confusion, innovators are using financial technology to ease the pain of Ugandans. One way they are doing this is through developing digital loans platforms that have realistic terms and interest. While many digital loans platforms are equally unreasonable, there are a few authentic and ideal ones.

Among the few credible digital loans platforms operating in Uganda is JUMO; a market-leading banking service platform that enables real-time access to funds at the lowest possible operating cost.

Well as the brand JUMO is not a household name, its products are household names and used by millions across Uganda every day. JUMO’s flagship products in Uganda are Wewole accessible on Airtel Money and MoSente available on MTN MoMo.

“JUMO started operations in 2015. We use artificial intelligence to provide financial services in emerging markets. To do this, we partner with capital providers on one side and mobile money operators like MTN MoMo and Airtel Money on the other side. In Uganda, JUMO provides Wewole in partnership with Airtel Money. We also provide MoSente in partnership with MTN MoMo. These loans are given to eligible customers; these must be registered and actively transacting. When one is getting the loan, s/he selects their preferred repayment time, which can be weekly, two weeks or one month,” Wilfred Wabwire, the JUMO country manager for Uganda explained.

He highlighted that for the years JUMO has been providing services in Uganda, it has served over 5 million customers.

“We launched Wewole in 2017 and to date have served over 4 million unique users. We launched MoSente in December 2021 and to date have served over 1 million users. 65 per cent of our customers are MSMEs and 30 per cent are women. In terms of Youth participation; 16 per cent are below the age of 24 and 44 per cent are between 25 and 34 years. The beauty with our loans is that they are accessible through USSD thus catering for last mile customers that use feature phones.”

But even with this coverage, Wabwire emphasized that there are still millions of unbanked and unserved Ugandans that don’t have access to financial services and thus players must continue to innovate and collaborate so that these customers are reached and served.

JUMO has featured on Day 22 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Uganda is blessed with very many quality Artisans. However, most of these are not earning as much as they would rightfully earn due to market access challenges. This market information gap is what Trillion Looks Store was established to close. It has since embedded e-commerce with financial technology (Fintech) and in so doing contributing to Uganda’s economic transformation through connecting Artisans to a wider global market.

“We are a social enterprise that works with marginalized Artisan designers to enable them produce quality products and sell them to a mass market across the globe through e-commerce.  Our platform was designed for Artisans mainly men and women who make handcrafts. We encourage them to produce quality products which we then upload on our platform for potential buyers. We started this platform in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when Artisans wouldn’t access buyers due to the lockdown. So, we created a platform that would keep Artisans in business by connecting them to buyers. So, on one hand, we have the Artisan designers and on the other hand, we have the potential buyers,” Cerinah Kasirye, the Trillion Looks Store Founder said, adding;

“For customers, you simply log on to our platform and select a product of your choice. If it is a drum, you click on it and find its details. You then select the quantities you want after which the system will automatically calculate your bill depending on the country you are in. When you click buy now, the platform will then collect your basic KYC information and you will pay digitally through mobile money or bank cards. We shall then proceed to deliver your product with the help of our transport partners. The delivery time depends on where you are and we always communicate this with our customers.”

Kasirye noted that since inception, they have onboarded at-least 200 Artisans and served more than 1000 customers locally and globally. She revealed that 60 per cent of customers are women.

Trillion Looks Store has featured on Day 21 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

About 30 percent of Ugandans were living below the poverty line in 2019/20, a percentage point slightly lower than the 31 percent recorded in 2012/13. The poverty rate used in the World Bank study was based on revisions made to the poverty line by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in 2021.

As such, efforts to stop, and somewhat eradicate poverty are always a sigh of relief. In Africa, several organizations continue to roll out programs to eradicate poverty. One such organization is Village Enterprise.

Founded in 1987 and currently operating in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, Village Enterprise is a non-profit that works to end extreme poverty in Africa. Building on over three decades of experience in Uganda, Village Enterprise works with large international nonprofits and conservation partners in northern, central, and western Uganda.

“The Village Enterprise model is around something called the Poverty Graduation Model. In this model, we do business skills training with individuals we have identified are living below the poverty line. We mentor them and also give them cash grants to start their businesses. With this model, it is a group of three that starts a business and thus the cash grants go to a group of three. This money is for starting businesses or further investing in their businesses and is not paid back,” Mercy Angela Nantongo, the Digital Product Manager at Village Enterprise noted.

She added: “To qualify for this program, we go to the field and do surveys to confirm whether someone is living through the poverty lines. After this identification, we do the trainings and mentorships and those that complete these trainings then qualify for the grants. The people we serve are determined by where they stay, what they own, and the information submitted in the survey.”

Nantongo noted that they are now incorporating financial technology (Fintech) in their operations to enable the beneficiaries to have sustainable businesses.

“We have introduced a digital solution that enables our groups to do record keeping and save their money digitally. This solution enables them to do their meetings, record their money digitally, and also keep track of their goals. We also deliver our cash grants via mobile money. But we are currently exploring better ways of doing this because remember the cash grants go to a group of three and a mobile money line is usually owned by one person. So, we are looking at better ways of ensuring that when this money is sent, all the three beneficiaries rightly use it for the intended purpose without misuse from a single individual,” Nantongo explained. 

Village Enterprise has featured on Day 20 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Agriculture remains the backbone of Uganda’s economy, but its full potential is still hindered by various challenges. These include underfunding, inaccessible inputs, climate change, limited market information, and failure to modernize.

Even with all this happening, there is renewed hope as technology continues to aid the conceptualization, development, and roll-out of platforms to address these ills.

One such platform that is enabling thousands of farmers to get better yields from their gardens and ultimately earn more from agriculture is ETG Inputs.

According to Ponsiano Byansi, an agronomist at ETG, ETG Input is part of the wider Export Trading Group (ETG) that has been in operation since 1967. He says ETG Inputs specifically deals with the importation and distribution of fertilizers, crop protection products, and extension services.

“We are also in the digital space to ensure that farmers are not left behind in the digital era. We address this through our ETG one-stop solution APP that ensures that farmers have access to finance services, market information, and crop protection information. Not every farmer knows what chemical is used to kill what pest. So, through the ETG One-Sop Solutions APP, we ensure that this information is readily available to farmers. So, a farmer can make a diagnosis of their crop using the ETG one-stop solution APP. S/he can be able to know what disease they have in the garden and through the APP, they can contact an agronomist who is ready to provide real-time advice on what product the farmer should use,” Mr Byansi said.

He added: “The APP also provides the farmer with a financial management and expenses tracking platform that enables them to track down their expenses for a particular season. In addition, the APP allows us to collect Know your customer (KYC) information for customers and thus enables us to extend credit to big commercial farmers and Agro-dealers.”

Byansi noted that the ETG APP is available on Google Play store, readily accessible and usable by all farmers.

“Our vision is to offer 360 happiness and create a sustainable impact in the lives of farmers. We have about 500 Agro-dealers spread across Uganda. We have so far reached over 100,000 farmers from across Uganda.”

ETG Inputs has featured on Day 19 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gone are the days when the only way one would access health services was through physically visiting a healthcare facility, seeing a physician, and getting treated. Lately, you can complete the entire hospital process without visiting a healthcare facility thanks to telemedicine.

Although Telemedicine has multiple definitions, it can be easily explained as a term used to describe the remote delivery of healthcare services using telecommunications technology. Among the players offering all-around Telemedicine services in Uganda is Venro Healthcare – a medical company specializing in home-based care and e-health services.

“At Venro Healthcare, we offer telemedicine services. Our main aim is to make healthcare available, affordable, and accessible to everyone. We have an online platform that enables our patients to schedule appointments after which a doctor moves to the patient’s home or office and conducts consultation and physical examination, and also takes samples in case tests are needed. We also offer bedside nursing dedicated to patients that don’t have caretakers. The other service we offer is online medicine delivery through our online pharmacy. For controlled medicines, you must present a prescription,” Kenneth Ssonko, the Venro Healthcare Co-Founder explained.

He added: “We started Venro Healthcare in 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. We realized that patients couldn’t access hospitals yet healthcare providers were allowed to move. We have since served more than 1,000 patients and have gone on to establish a physical facility that supports our telemedicine services.”

Ssonko highlighted that their services are accessible via a website platform and on a mobile APP.

“When one logs onto the website or opens the APP, he/she chooses the service they want and also selects the physician they want to see or medicine they want to buy. When we receive this order, we go through it and automatically assign the right professional to attend to it. We show the customer the total bill which they can pay digitally via mobile money, merchant codes, bank deposits, or online banking. All customers sign consent forms to confirm that they have allowed us to serve them and commit to paying the arising bill.”

Venro Health has featured on Day 18 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Advancement in Technology has come with several innovations. Today, you can almost do everything with the help of technology. Among the new things that people are doing digitally is investment. Instead of investing in tangible things (buying land, home assets, or domestic animals), technology enables one to invest in intangible yet profitable ventures. Even though this comes with its unique challenges, when done right and with the right people, it yields results.

In Uganda, among the players that are offering digital investment opportunities is Cyanase, a platform founded by students of Makerere University.

According to Mark Obini, the Cyanase Chief Marketing Officer, the platform’s ultimate goal is to use financial technology to make investment accessible to everyone including the underdeveloped markets.

“At Cyanase, we have three major products. We have the web platform, API, and fund managers’ portal. Each of these platforms serves a different customer. The web platform is for daily users. It enables them to understand how the different investments work before they start investing in them. The API is a technology that a FinTech or Bank can integrate into its platform and use it to serve its customers. The fund managers’ portal is for the managers who manage the investment. We offer our customers different investment products such as unit trust, treasury bills and bonds, and real estate, among others,” Mark Obini said.

He added: “We are regulated by the Uganda sandbox that is operated by the Bank of Uganda. This regulation makes us authentic as it allows us to operate. So far, we have close to 3,000 subscribers and about 1,000 active investors.”

Obini noted that their biggest challenges so far are funding, market awareness and reach. He nonetheless noted that thanks to their participation in the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative last year, they have been able to onboard a fund manager and are also in progressive discussions with potential investors.

“Before we featured on 40 Days 40 FinTechs, the market didn’t know us that much. But after this, our awareness and interest from potential customers grew. We now seek more collaborations with like-minded people to further scale this platform and serve more people.”

Cyanase has featured on Day 17 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) and Microfinance Institutions are at the heart of last-mile financial institutions as these serve the unserved and underserved. However, many of these continue to depend on paper and cash-based systems that are prone to misuse, time-wasting, and thus inconvenience all the parties involved.

But technology is addressing most of these issues with innovators developing solutions that enable such institutions to transition from traditional to digital systems. Among the platforms that are leading the digitization of SACCOs and microfinance institutions is Zimba Technologies.

Zimba Technologies is a platform that builds core banking solutions and systems for financial institutions with a primary focus on SACCOs and microfinance institutions. 

“I can’t explain the origins of Zimba without telling my personal story. I come from Eastern Uganda, just outside Mbale. When I was young, my family had so many struggles. I lost both my parents by the age of seven and my uncle was responsible for providing for my siblings and myself. He was unable to access capital to expand our family farm. Fortunately, things worked out and we were adopted by American missionaries, and that is how I ended up in the USA,” explained Isaac Were, Zimba Technologies Founder and CEO, adding;

“But I never forgot those experiences as a child. So, when I came back to visit for the first time, after twelve years, I hoped to start a business but the same problem – limited access to capital – was still persistent. So, when I decided that I wanted to come back to settle in Uganda, I said I would start a business to address the problem of capital and access to finance. I knew that Saccos and microfinances play an important role for the people at the bottom of the pyramid as they enable them access to capital. But I believe that they can do better with the help of technology. That is how Zimba technologies came about.”

Mr. Were highlighted that before launching Zimba Technologies, they did comprehensive research and found the gaps in the market and thus started to design solutions to address those specific problems.

“We have developed an end-to-end solution that allows institutions to handle all their operations from managing clients and their data, loans, deposits and to keeping track of all their books. We have also developed a mobile APP specifically for the end-users. The APP allows them to have access to their financial information, view their statements, and apply for loans. We also have a blockchain-based wallet that handles all the cashless transactions. It allows both mobile money and bank transactions,” he said.

“We started building the product in 2021 and officially launched in November 2023. We currently have seventeen institutions that are using the platform. These serve over 80,000 end-users.”

Zimba Technologies has featured on Day 16 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.