Category: Include Everyone

With years of experience in the boda boda business, Francis Edyel says that refuelling is one of the most painful things to a rider. On a given bad day, he would usually struggle to juggle between paying the bike owner, leaving some money at home for his family, and refuelling his motorcycle to start the day.

This was until he was introduced to Medmoo, a Financial Technology startup based in Lira that disburses micro-loans to boda-boda riders.

“I got the information from the manager of Medmoo that they can give me a fuel loan. I registered and got fuel and paid in the evening. MedMoo changed my work in a way that I get more customers because if my fuel is there, it’s easy for me to get more customers,” he says.

Edyel says that while the 10 percent interest on the fuel loans is a bit high, the idea of getting no-cash fuel every morning has made work easy.

“That fuel helps me a lot because when I get money, it can help me to feed my family and sometimes pay school fees for the children. There’s a challenge of interest rate – the thing with fuel, sometimes the price can go high. For instance, when they give us fuel for Shs 5,000 when paying back we add Shs 500. They should reduce the Shs 500 interest to at least Shs 250. There, it will be fair for us,” he says.

Edward Omara, another Lira City-based Boda Boda rider equally agrees to the transformative role of MedMoo, noting that even with the 10 per cent interest, the daily fuel loans enable them to start each work day with the focus on transporting customers and no worry about failure to complete trips due to fuel shortage. He notes that his Boda Boda job enables him to live a decent life and the MedMoo fuel loans are an enabler for this.

Boda Boda revolution.

Medmoo has been in operation since 2021, with its main operations in Lira City.

According to Denis Orech, the CEO and co-founder of MedMoo, within two years, they have been able to onboard over 1,600 riders, with more than 83 percent of them able to interface with the fuel loan product.

Orech explains that for anyone to register as a client for the fuel loan service, they must have a stage recognized by the boda chairmanship in that particular region or district.

“When we confirm that the stage is registered, we move to the stage and you must be a member of a particular stage. We come and sign you but your signing is co-signed by the stage chairmanship because most stages have leadership,” he says.

He notes that their main target is boda-boda riders because of their daily financial challenges. The fuel loans range from Shs 5,000 to Shs 20,000 which are payable within 24 hours.

About the interest of 10 percent, Orech says “This is a drop in the bucket compared to how much they can make in a day, especially for those doing town service.”

Financial struggles.

Despite this being a good initiative, Orech notes the lack of seed capital is delaying Medmoo’s growth beyond their locality to the national and regional levels.

“The other challenge is the low level of penetration of technology especially the gadgets that would be used to access our service,” he says.

He is however grateful for the contribution of the 40 days 40 FinTechs initiative organised by HiPipo to highlight unique stories by FinTechs in the East African region.

“The impact is quite tremendous given the exposure that has been given to us as a startup in Northern Uganda. We do recall that last year after our participation in the 40 Days 40 FinTechs, we were able to have access to a grant. A well-wisher gave us Shs 4m to facilitate our operations. This was purely a result of exposure by the 40 days 40 FinTechs,” he says.

Meanwhile, HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya says that the quick impact created by MedMoo is a testament to the opportunities available in the FinTech sector in Africa if we embrace targeted innovation.

“Our target is to include everyone. We need people like MedMoo who identify a common problem and come up with a convenient solution,” he said.

MedMoo is the 31st participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative run by HiPipo in partnership with Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Now in its fourth season, HiPipo’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has become a household name in the financial technology space of the East African region. In the last three editions, more than 100 FinTechs have been showcased, highlighting stories changing people’s lives, especially in the under-served sectors.

It is no secret that more than half of Africa’s adult population lacks a bank account or even a mobile money profile. This means a huge block of the African population is totally excluded, with no financial identity at all.

As a result, Africa is predominantly a cash economy where transactions are peer-to-peer. This has therefore presented a huge opportunity for sector players to come up with innovations that can contribute to the migration from cash to a digital economy. Such innovations include mobile money, and borderless money transfers, among others.

It was with these facts in mind that MyTalu – a financial technology company headquartered in London, UK – entered the Ugandan market in 2021 to try and tap into the virgin remittances market.

“Much as there are several entities engaged in cross-border payment recently, the market is still big. It’s not that everyone can get their money on time at specific rates. As a sender on MyTalu, you can dictate how the money is used,” says Dan Edoma, the MyTalu Country Manager Uganda and Vice President of Growth and Expansion.

“We do offer four products; cross-border transfers, eased payment of bills like water and electricity, multi-currency wallets, and virtual cards to help people who may not necessarily have either Visa or Mastercard-enabled cards but still want to do online transactions,” Edoma says.

On top of that, they also seek to create a purely cashless economy in Uganda and Arica at large.

“If you are to go to downtown Kampala, the best way to make transactions is by cash. However, globally, everything is being digitized. We have cashless economies that are at almost 100 percent. This is the opportunity where we need to get into and ensure that we digitize the cash transactions in Uganda,” he says.

Edoma believes that while Telecom companies such as MTN and Airtel started the merchant payment system, the uptake has been limited to very few institutions and opportunities are abundant for other players to join the market.

“Not every institution has a merchant code or MoMo or Airtel pay code. If you go to your local charcoal seller and do not have cash, you need to do mobile transactions and that’s an opportunity that needs to be utilized,” he says.

He also gives the example of school fees payment, which touches almost every parent.

“Right now, learners are going back to school and not every school has – besides the bank accounts and going to the bursar – any other mode of payment. So, how do you digitize that and ensure that people can make payment from the ease of their living room minus going to the bank to line up or the school bursar?” he wonders.

Healthy competition.

Edoma says that the money transfers and remittances market in Africa can benefit from strong competition because this would push innovators to improve their products and services.

“No one is an island and we need each other. We need both competitors as well as complementors,” he says.

MyTalu is the 30th participant in Season Four of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative organised by HiPipo to shine a light on emerging Financial Technology companies with unique stories changing the lives of under-served communities.

“I am keenly looking forward to meeting other players and just learning about what they are doing and what are the possible loose ends or opportunities for partnerships. You realize that not everyone else is doing what you are doing and not everyone is intended to do what you do but you have people who need what you are doing,” he said.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is organised in partnership with Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Alvin Sam Otto is the coordinator Oyam District Farmers Association. Charged with over 200 farmer groups with a membership of thousands of farmers spread across 64 parishes, Otto’s biggest challenge is about keeping tabs on the needs of every farmer.

Some want extension services; some want farm inputs while others want market opportunities. Otto would have to manually handle these needs, one by one.

This however was made easy in 2019 when the association was introduced to Hamwe East Africa, a Financial Technology company offering management, payments, and collections services for farmers.

“We signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hamwe East Africa in 2020. They helped us profile our farmers and put us in a digital system which enabled digital transactions for our farmers,” Otto says.

It was however not very easy because this service requires every farmer to at least have a smartphone, which is a rare commodity in a rural district like Oyam.

They, therefore, started by identifying agents with smartphones where farmers would go to make transactions or get market information.

“We requested Hamwe, in partnership with MTN, to provide us with mini smartphones which would help our farmers. They provided us with 2,000 phones which were given to farmers to access the system and make orders regarding whatever they wanted like feeds and inputs. This was very helpful to our organization.”

Otto says this gesture saw the membership numbers rise from 4,000 to about 7,000.

Creating a difference.

According to Stella Lugalambi, a Co-founder and managing director of Hamwe East Africa, since the inception of this digital platform in 2013, their motivation was to ensure that rural dwellers find farming a desirable economic activity.

“We wanted to digitize the value chains. First, we have a product about management where we help groups consolidate all information like biodata for farmers, value chains, and suppliers, among others,” he says.

“Our second product is Hamwe pay – this payment gateway allows the farmers to be able to pay for products and also access their funds when they sell their produce. The third platform is an order service – this platform is where they access different services like crop insurance, tractor hire services, agro-dealers, and suppliers for seeds,” she says.

“The last product is the collection for aggregated demand – they can access this service using SMS and inform a digital agent that the crops are ready for collection,” she adds.

Currently, Hamwe is servicing about seven unions and under them, there are about 720 primary cooperatives.

“We have profiled about 280,000 farmers. Some of the biggest women groups are in the Lango sub-region. We have also worked with 840 groups in West Nile where we found few cooperatives but ended up working with farmer groups. These groups come together and have more than one acre of land and form a small association,” she explains.

In the Lango sub-region, one big union they work with is called Acwec Omio Cooperative Society.  According to Fiona Atim, the General Manager of Acwec Omio Cooperative Society, this union was started in 1999 by 15 widows but joined the Hamwe revolution in 2021.

“By then, farmers were having two to three acres but when Hamwe came in, they trained farmers on how to use the chemicals, and improved seeds. Such farmers have risen from two to three acres to ten acres each. Most of the farmers now take their children to good schools and their lives have changed,” she says.

Lugalambi notes that they have also worked in South Western Uganda with about five cooperatives in Ntungamo, Kanungu that work with coffee and sorghum.

Network problems.

One of the unanimous challenges faced by this initiative is the lack of stable internet connection in rural areas despite the fact that such services provided by Hamwe are powered by the internet.

Lugalambi acknowledges this challenge but notes that some telecoms are willing to help.

“We have been talking to the telecoms and acknowledged that there is a problem and some are willing to bring in boosters to some places if we can show that we have at least 5,000 farmers that would utilize the internet in such areas,” she says.

“Most of the farmers in the underserved areas are digitally excluded. Before we financially include them, is it possible to first digitally include them? So, if they can’t put those infrastructures in place, then, these farmers may never be financially included.”

She is however pleased with the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative organised by HiPipo which is not only showcasing FinTechs but also helping in highlighting and looking for solutions to challenges affecting the industry.

Meanwhile, HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya says the work being done by FinTechs such as Hamwe brings hope to the under-served communities.

“A farmer deep down in the villages only needs to know where they can sell their produce and receive money in real-time; where to buy inputs and how to handle produce. Hamwe is providing this service,” he said.

“Season Four of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative aims to look at user experiences and identify challenges such as internet connectivity and bring together stakeholders to find solutions to these problems,” he added.

Hamwe is the 29th participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative, presented by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Ideation Corner, Cyberplc Academy, and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

One of the rarest commodities in the world of digital business is called trust. Everyone is afraid of another either because of past experiences with fraud or stories regarding the same.

When it comes to the car business, the odds of getting exactly what you ordered online are very minimal, especially in Africa. It is possible for someone in Uganda to order a 2022 Mercedez Benz from a car dealer in Asia and receive a 2017 make with even different specifications!

So, it is such fears that Autochek – an African one-stop-shop for car buyers, sellers, and service providers was formed to eliminate.

“We live by the principle of you get what you see on the website,” says Victor Magaki, the East African Regional HR manager at Autochek Africa.   

Magaki says that the idea of owning a genuine car should not be very complicated. The Autochek website, therefore, allows sellers and buyers to meet, negotiate and pay the right amount for the right commodity.

“To eliminate people’s fears, we follow proper procedures to ensure that every stakeholder is in sync. For instance, when a dealer posts a car on our website, we first send a group of professionals to inspect it to ensure that it has the specifications as mentioned,” he says.

Started in the September of 2020 in Nigeria and Ghana, Autochek has had exponential growth to establish branches in Uganda, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, Central African Republic, etc.

“Recently, we acquired Auto Tiger in Egypt and Autochek Financial Services in South Africa. All this acquisition is in less than three years of penetrating major automotive markets in Africa to nine countries,” he says.

In Uganda alone, Magaki says they work with more than 2,000 car dealers, which creates variety for their clients. Someone who wants a car just needs to visit our portal, pick a car of their choice and they are connected to the dealer.

Magaki adds that one of the most attractive components of Autochek is the car financing service where people are allowed to apply for cars of their choice and pay for them in instalments.

“We partner with microfinance institutions. We have also been whitelisted with Stanbic Bank so that we can do the loans and everything,” he says.

“We are building the Fintech experience and in Africa, you always know that it is built on trust. Like other marketplace platforms, we are trying. I don’t want to mention places but there are other places where you see your car being sold and you wonder how it happened.”

GENUINE

According to Bilal Saeed, the Sales Manager, YUASA – a marketplace, commonly referred to as bond for new cars, since they started using the Autochek Uganda platform about two years ago, the service has been fast, efficient, and reliable.

“They not only finance the cars but also make sure that they keep the car in a good state. If you compare the market dynamics, different institutions are providing similar facilities. There are banks and other financiers but Autochek beats them. They are more organized, you can do online inquiries, and fill up online forms, and don’t need to go to their offices. They are instant and fast,” he says.

“Autochek makes sure that any car they buy from us is properly serviced and checked before they take the car on the road. They look at the car physically and mechanically,” he adds, noting that they have so far sold more than 60 cars through Autochek.

Saeed thus urges Autochek to develop a mobile application with simpler know-your-customer requirements which will definitely attract more people to their platform.

Autochek is the 28th participant in Season Four of 40 Days 40 FinTechs organised by HiPipo to shine a light on unique innovations changing people’s lives at the bottom of the pyramid in the East African region.

The 40 days 40 FinTechs organisers deserve a round of applause and appreciation because this is big and very educative. We have an opportunity to learn about activities of 40 FinTechs in 40 Days,” Mageto says.

HiPipo’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has become a household name in the financial technology space of the East African region. In the last three editions, more than 100 FinTechs have been showcased, highlighting stories changing people’s lives, especially in the under-served sectors.

The initiative is organised in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Ideation Corner, Cyberplc Academy, and Crosslake Technologies with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The life of a migrant is very complicated. Most migrants rely on the mercy of others for survival. When it comes to financial services, migrants are some of the most underserved communities because of their lack of documentation.

With this in mind, a Ugandan financial services company called Cytrone Limited came up with a digital service targeting such communities.

According to Bob Moses Oyuru, the founder and CEO of Cytrone Limited, they introduced a mobile application called PayClide, to help such people who leave their home countries to host countries like Uganda and can’t access things like banks and investments.

“PayClide comes in to cover this gap to enable these people with financial interests in both their homes and host countries to access financial services and have security and prosperity,” he says.

“These people have families back home to whom they need to send money. They have their personal goals. They need financial services,” he adds.

With a free PayClide account, users can easily accept payments, enjoy free money transfers, set savings, invest, make smart spending budgets and access flexible credit instantly.

Oyuru notes that since their formation, transaction numbers have steadily risen but are only hampered by users having small deposits.

“Our target audience is the migrants but anyone that has intentions of saving small amounts or micro amounts of money, they too can use the product. Our App allows people to save as low as Shs 500 into a unit trust and see it grow,” he says.

Even non-migrants have indeed used this platform for other services such as bill payment and saving. Doreen Ibano can testify to this.

“I joined PayClide around 2020. I tried the App and paid for my Yaka [electricity] bill and it has been transitioning as it grows.  They have introduced products like saving. I have personal goals like wanting to buy another laptop for my office. So, I want to also improve my saving habits and this platform comes in handy,” Ibano says.

Oyuru is happy that there is steady progress in a short time.

“Our members have steadily grown over the years. By 2021, we had 1,023 users. As we speak, we are working with 3,042 users and we expect these numbers to grow once we do more marketing,” he says.

He identifies their major challenge as being high compliance costs that hamper progress.

“Partnerships are quite another challenge whereby the big players are reluctant to partner with you as they consider you a micro player,” he says.

Nonetheless, Bob appreciates the opportunity to be part of Season Four of the 40 Days 40 Fintechs initiative; organised by HiPipo to highlight unique innovations changing the lives of under-served communities in the East African region.

“As startups, we face a lot of challenges. The 40 Days and 40 FinTechs initiative open wider doors for smaller FinTechs like us to get free visibility that we didn’t have previously. The promotion, marketing, and visibility, are quite large and clearly benefit small players,” he says.

PayClide is the 27th participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative which has a main focus on assessing the impact of innovations on end-users.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, PayClide’s unique niche of targeting migrants deserves much appreciation.

“This is exactly what we mean when we say we must have a financial services sector that includes and benefits everyone. PayClide has identified an under-served society and is doing a great job to bring them to the digital financial services sector,” he said.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is run by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Life-changing stories from more than 100 FinTechs have been highlighted by this initiative in the past three years.

Almost every day, there is a concert, show, or festival happening somewhere in Uganda. The majority of the partygoers mention access to tickets as a major pain point for attending these shows.

For others, it is fraud involved in ticket printing. Many at a time you go to an event only to be told that you are carrying a fake ticket!

Dickson Kawooya cannot forget the day he was bounced at a concert in Kololo for allegedly carrying a fake ticket.

“I had bought the ‘fake ticket’ at one of the outlets just outside the concert venue. I found a hard time explaining myself to people manning the entrance. I was just bounced and I went home very disappointed” Kawooya recalls this unfortunate incident.

However, several companies have come up to use technology to address the ticketing issue. Among such companies is EasyTicket Uganda.

“I am happy with these digital platforms such as Easy Tickets Uganda. You just go to their website and pay using your mobile money account. You later receive your ticket inscribed with a code on your email,” Kawooya says.

“For instance, on my email, the password is secure and there’s no chance of duplicating it. When you reach an event, you just display your online ticket and they scan the unique code.”

According to Hillary Aguma, the Tech and Field Supervisor at EasyTicket LTD, they started this ticket solution company about ten years ago and use the brand name Quicket, which is a franchise from South Africa.

Aguma notes that they work with event organisers to make ticket purchasing and entrance management easy.

“We create a link for the event organizer. We set up the event online with an updated banner and send them the link that is shared with their clients and organizers,” he says.

“If you are a partygoer, you tap the link and scroll down to give you the brief of the event you want to attend and some added information about the organizer. You later go to the tickets menu and search the various categories. On our platform, you can buy more than two tickets at once. You fill in your surname and email.”

“Our tickets are end-to-end to our clients. The information the client has placed in while purchasing a ticket will be captured and their ticket will go straight to their email. We don’t want to face issues where a client was sent a ticket to WhatsApp and on D-day, their WhatsApp number was with someone else,” he says.

On top of that, Aguma notes that they do physical barcode tickets with unique security features, hence overcoming the issue of duplicating tickets.

“These tickets are scanned on the day of the event. We give our client a generated report on how many people checked in on the concert,” he says, noting that payments can be made using both mobile money and card payments using a third-party payment processor – Flutterwave; an African FinTech unicorn.

“We have worked on about 200 events with over 21,000 clients purchasing tickets off our platform. We have worked with event organizers mainly in music, sports, festivals, and conference among others,” he says, naming the likes of KCCA football club, House of DJs for Blankets and Wine, Talent Africa, and Gwanga Mujje for Biggie Events among other clients.  

One of the challenges Aguma highlights are scenarios where clients decide to request a refund even when the event has ended.

“Some clients fail to go to the event and then they go to social media and start blasting us to refund them!” Aguma says.

He is, however, grateful to the organisers of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for providing a platform where FinTechs, regulators, and end-users can meet and try to understand each other.

Easy Ticket is the 26^th participant in Season Four of 40 Days 40 FinTechs, an initiative aimed at creating awareness about emerging FinTechs in the East African Region and how they are changing lives for the people at the bottom of the pyramid.

This initiative is run by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Life-changing stories from more than 100 FinTechs have been highlighted by this initiative in the past three years.

If you have ever taken a boda boda ride, then you certainly know the inconvenience that comes with finding change in case you have a denomination higher than the agreed fare.

Even Boda Boda riders and cab drivers agree that it is one of their worst nightmares, especially if riding at night.

 “We often take people to gated communities and you don’t have the change to give them. The time you spend looking for change around is insecure for you,” says Bosco Zalibala, a SafeBoda rider.

Ziribala is however happy that he rarely encounters these challenges nowadays, since his current business partner, SafeBoda, introduced a cashless system where travellers pay digitally.

 “The cashless payment system has been good because there are times when you get a customer whose fare is, for instance, Shs 3,500 yet you don’t have the change of Shs 500,” says Ziribala, who has been riding with SafeBoda since 2017.

He adds; “A thief can even attack you as you struggle to look for change. But if the customer is cashless, as soon as you reach the final destination, s/he pays automatically and you also leave immediately.”

According to Christian Wamambe, the vice president in charge of payments and well-being at SafeBoda, the cashless system was introduced to make life easy for customers and riders alike.

“For a cashless customer, you just need to add money to your wallet and whenever you order a boda or car, at the end of the trip you don’t need to struggle looking for change,” he says.

“The system automatically withdraws money from your wallet and pays the rider or driver,” he says.

SafeBoda is a super APP!

For close to a decade, SafeBoda has become Uganda’s go-to riding mobile application enabling people to reach destinations using a motorcycle or car. They have more than 30,000 riders on the APP.

On top of that, they offer financial services where one can pay their bills, and send parcels, among other transactions.

Wamambe says SafeBoda started by providing boda boda transport services through a mobile application to end the hustle of people walking along streets and boda boda stages and bargaining with boda boda riders about the trip fare.

“With the SafeBoda app, you click to order a Boda, put your destination, put where you are, and as soon as you order, a rider will call you and pick you up directly from your location,” he says.

The prices are transparent because, at the beginning of the trip, the customer gets an estimate of the trip fee.

In 2022, SafeBoda launched SafeCar as a result of many customers requesting this service.

“They loved our boda service and they wanted a trusted car service. This was mainly because the car industry was bogged down with a lot of people negotiating trip fares,” he says.

“Imagine ordering a car and you have Shs 20,000 in your pocket only for a driver to ask for money twice the price. At SafeBoda, we felt that we needed to come in and help our customers. There were also our boda riders who wanted to transition into car drivers.”

Since this product’s launch in September 2022, Wamambe says more than 50 boda-boda riders have transferred into car drivers and are earning a decent living from the service.

“Overall we are happy with the impact we are having in the FinTech sector. At the end of 2021, SafeBoda got a FinTech license from the central bank. We have more than one million customers who have used at least one of our services,” he says.

Wamambe nonetheless notes that there are several challenges in the FinTech industry such as a lack of talent, cybersecurity issues and unnecessary competition in this market.

“For instance, the best engineer from a Ugandan university is taken away by a company abroad. This means that the local businesses will struggle because your competition isn’t just in the neighbourhood but the globe,” he says.

He is however happy with the 40 Days 40 FinTech initiative that is shedding a light on many startups in the industry and what they do.

“Most of the time customers are looking for services but tend to look for companies abroad and yet there are homegrown companies that have the solutions to their problems. This platform not only allows FinTechs to shine or showcase what they have but for their customers to know that they exist,” he says.

“Even regulators start to understand businesses a lot more. It is very hard for our regulators to know all the businesses at ago in a single day. Such an initiative continues to market our businesses and create awareness to even the government,” he adds.

SafeBoda is the twenty-fifth participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; organised by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since its launch in 2020, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has become a household name in the financial technology space of the East African region. In the last three editions, more than 100 FinTechs have been showcased, highlighting stories changing people’s lives, especially in the under-served sectors.

Lining up in a bank to pay school fees is one disturbance no parent wants to endure because they are already stressed by the hustle of raising money.

Therefore, many parents are happy with the emerging innovations that facilitate the payment of school dues using digital platforms.

One such parent is Kenneth Nabaasa, a businessman with learners at Genius Kings School.  Nabaasa says that ever since the school introduced a digital payments system they can comfortably pay anytime anywhere.

According to Alex Mujuni, a school head teacher, they started using the Student DigPay platform by a company called Quick Post early this year [2023] and the feedback is very positive.

“The Quick Post platform has been good for us. Both the school and parents are benefiting because everything is digitized. Parents can pay fees at home, which saves both their time and the school’s time,” he says.

Student DigPay by Quick Post.

According to Ali Kibuye, the Head of Operations at Quick Post Limited, Quick Post is a FinTech that offers products to all banked and unbanked customers in Uganda.

“We do financial integrations for payments, collections, and other digital lending services to our customers,” he says, adding that with the Student DigPay product, they have enrolled more than 300 schools.

His colleague Sapex Ampurire, the Brand Manager at Quick Post, explains that the Student DigPay service uses a USSD code where the parent just dials *217*215# and they select option 9.

“When you get there, they will ask you for the student code because each student in a specific school is given a code. A parent will use that code to make a payment,” he says.

The system will first validate the details of the student to confirm that they are paying for the right person. Ampulira and Kibuye say about 350,000 students are engaged on the students’ digital pay platform.

Meanwhile, Kibuye says that they also offer school advance loans which have so far benefited more than 1500 students.

“In the field of schools, we found that many parents find trouble raising school fees payments which are needed timely at schools. We provide advanced school loans to parents who have inabilities to pay in a lump sum. Such parents go ahead and get annual loans from Quick Post which are paid directly to the schools and the parents repay monthly to Quick Post,” he said.

40 Days 40 FinTechs

Quick Post is the twenty-fourth participant in Season Four of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative organised by HiPipo to showcase innovative stories in the FinTech sector that are changing lives for under-served communities.

“The 40 Days 40 FinTech has helped to sensitize other people to be aware of other systems that are being developed. Initially, it was hard for people to embrace technology but HiPipo has done a great job to inform people about other products,” Kibuye noted.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, such products as digital school fees payments are very important in a world where every second matters.

“Today every second matters. There is no need for someone to spend two hours in a banking hall trying to pay school fees. That time can be used productively. We are happy with these innovations that are removing this time wastage and bringing convenience to parents,” he noted.

“We are also cognizant of the fact that many parents are salary earners who receive payment at the end of the month. So, these advance school fees loans offered by the FinTechs such as Quick Post are really changing lives.”

Now in its fourth season, HiPipo’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has become a household name in the financial technology space of the East African region. In the last three editions, more than 100 FinTechs have been showcased, highlighting stories changing people’s lives, especially in the under-served sectors.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.