Posted on

#IncludeEveryone : Digital Financial Services are the way to go.

YEPI YEPI YOOH.

This is Nicholas Ntulume Luyimbula. Many know me as DJ Nick – a radio host and deejay.

Well today, I am not playing your favourite music.

Instead, I am here to share with you an ANTIDOTE that will keep all of us SAFE.

This is a call for you to embrace digital financial services. I mean, now than ever before, we should all be doing digital transactions. Receive your payments through your bank account or mobile money and transact electronically.

Encourage your Rolex (eggs in  chapatti) guy to accept mobile payments. Advise your market lady to get a pay bill number.  Teach your laundry person the advantages of transacting electronically.

This is a digital era and no one should be left behind.

We must include everyone because AN ECONOMY THAT INCLUDES EVERYONE BENEFITS EVERYONE.

Allow me thank the HiPipo Foundation for spearheading this Digital-Financial Inclusion awareness drive.

Wash your hands, sanitize, social distance, stay home and transact electronically.

STAY SAFE UGANDA.

Posted on

SCRAP MONEY TRANSFER Fees to further bridge FINANCIAL INCLUSION GAP.

Nicholas Kalungi.

This COVID19 pandemic caught the entire world off-guard. Not even your favourite pastor foresaw it. Even those that allegedly foreknew it, never prophesied about the same.

With its unprecedented outbreak, states have reacted by issuing the highest (Level 4) DO NOT TRAVEL advisories, closing borders and instituting curfews, partial and full lockdowns. Unfortunately this may go on for some months.

While this is happening, all countries are now actively advocating for digital cashless economies as a way for reducing the spread of this deadly virus. Working home, E-commerce and Digital Financial Services are the new normal.

In East Africa, Digital Financial Services providers swiftly responded to the roaming danger of the Corona Virus by waiving several transactional fees. For example, telecoms like MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda have for now suspended sending/transfer charges on Mobile Money and Airtel Money respectively. But withdraw charges have been maintained.

Additionally, several banks and micro finance institutions have scrapped several charges including those on Account to Wallet Transfers (bank account to mobile money), Agent Banking and other digital banking services.

Indeed, these sweetens are all good music to the public ears.

Nonetheless, several questions come up. Is that enough? Can’t these service providers do better now and in future? Did it have to take a pandemic to occur for these players to realize that the multiple charges were anti financial inclusion? Will this economic crisis occasioned by the Corona Virus disease teach financial sector players some lessons about the problem they create by just focusing on earning super normal profits and bonuses annually yet locking out the majority at the bottom of the pyramid?

Like HiPipo Foundation puts it; an ECONOMY that INCLUDES EVERYONE, BENEFITS EVERYONE.

As such, it is my hope that Digital Financial Services players will use this crisis to proactively design accessible and affordable products that will ensure that the poorest of the poor is able to transact electronically.

When this comes to an end, the new normal should be DOING AWAY WITH ALL MONEY SENDING/TRANSFER CHARGES AND SIGNIFICANLY REDUCING WITHDRAW AND TRANSACTIONAL COSTS.

STAY SAFE UGANDA.

The writer is a Financial Inclusion Advocate.

nicholaskalungi@gmail.com

Posted on

FINANCIAL INCLUSION is no longer an option. It is a NECESSITY.

Emily Sonia Nakabuye.

In 1994, the world’s richest man, also MICROSOFT founder, BILL GATES declared that BANKING IS NECESSARY but BANKS ARE NOT.

26 years later, the innovations and developments in the banking and finance sector continue to vindicate BILL GATES.

His proclamation is even more relevant now, considering that the Coronavirus pandemic has become a fully-fledged global economic crisis.

Minus washing hands with soap, sanitizing, not touching our eyes, nose and mouth plus STAYING AT HOME, another effective way of combating COVID19 is embracing Mobile Financial Services.

In African tradition, having money in CASH is a sign of wealth and status but these out-dated practices must totally stop if we are to SURVIVE such pandemics.

Money notes are not only dirty and infected but also unsafe as they encourage theft. On the other hand, a cashless economy is clean and safe.

Away from the health angle, the economic way of combating the Corona Virus is embracing Mobile Financial Services such as mobile money and other digital payments.

Digital cashless payments particularly empower WOMEN and other vulnerable members of our society to take care of their family needs through electronic home shopping using mobile money without exposing themselves to COVID19 and other dangers.

It is not lost on me that a big section of our people is in rural areas with limited access to mobile phones. But we have a very good start point.

Even so, COVID19 should be a wakeup call for US. How do we ensure that everyone boards the mobile financial services train? What are we doing to ensure that mobile financial services are available, affordable and accessible by everyone?

HiPipo Foundation is implementing a deliberate program to further entrench financial inclusion with well-tailored activities targeting everyone, but with stronger focus on WOMEN, YOUTH and PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

Like you may know; an ECONOMY that includes EVERYONE, BENEFITS EVERYONE.

I am home and safe.

Posted on

DFS, the ‘New Normal’ of Financial Services

From crisis comes innovation and opportunity. #COVID19 situation is no different. The ‘new normal’ in financial services will be an increasingly digital one and it is up to the incumbents to finally invest in this. We may finally see ‘real’ digital transformation and achieve full financial inclusion. Digital Financial Services will from now and going forward be key to any form of transaction.

HiPipo is keen to promote secure digital financial services because of their vital role in promoting financial inclusion.

It is time for advocates, MNOs, Banks, FinTechs, developers and everyone keen to promote financial inclusion to think interoperability, think internet of money and think of the most affordable ways to ensure everyone can have access to digital financial services.

For instance expansion of choices and creating platforms that strengthen the voices for women and girls in the financial inclusion arena might become the most profitable investment that benefits everyone now and for the future. Think about it!

Posted on

More Collaboration Will Foster Digital Financial Services Security

Trust of the financial eco system is central to mass adoption and deepening financial inclusion. Concerns of fraud and loss of customers` funds more so funds for the poor can lead to deep hesitation to use digital financial platforms and tools.

Mobile money has largely been delivered with more traditionally secure telecom channels such as USSD and STK. While these have their know vulnerabilities, their technical exploitation has been less perpetrated but a lot of social engineering through communication and persuasion of unsuspecting customers to share PIN, OTP and send money to fraudsters has been a very regular occurrence in the leading mobile money markets.

The era of interoperability fueled by leading platforms such as Majoloop will potentially increase the scale of possibility to fraud with fraudsters on one network targeting those on another network or bank to transfer funds over the interoperable Majoloop powered switch.

As thus, the industry stakeholders and players including telecoms, banks and regulators that handle KYC, need to collaborate more to share information of sim card centered frauds that fuel mobile social engineering fraud.

HiPipo Foundation Include Everyone program will take extra effort in our research, education and advocacy campaigns to ensure stakeholders appreciate the increased scale of social engineering fraud and collectively collaborate for information sharing.  This will also supplement efforts to combat AML and CFT.

Another dimension of growing risk is increased transactions over new generation digital channels i.e Apps, Web and social banking. Cybercrime that was initially Internet IP centric will hence forth increase as we see channel advances. Similarly, effort from tech and regulatory fronts will have to be boosted to hasten cyber protection of unsuspecting and naive consumers of which majority would likely be the poor, women and youth that a newly banking or semi banking citizens.

Join HiPipo Foundation during the Include Everyone advocacy events series to discuss these issues and provide best practice recommendation to addresses these financial inclusion challenges.

Posted on

Mojaloop Phase 4 Convening – Johannesburg, South Africa

HiPipo Foundation Include Everyone Team Attend Mojaloop Phase 4 Convening – Johannesburg, South Africa

HiPipo Foundation Include Everyone Team, were privileged to participate in the Mojaloop Phase 4 convening that was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 27 to 30 January 2020.

The convening had 115 attendees from 23 countries confirming its stable growth and setting new record.

Among several presentations, HiPipo Foundation Include Everyone team presented results from the #HackMojaloop and Summit that was held in Kampala during Q4 of 2019.

The convening event attendees performed over 142 ATM transactions and 80 POS transactions in a proof of concept demonstration of the software capabilities.

 

This further brings to light Mojaloop readiness for commercial adoption. Plus, with projects such as Mowali and TIPS planned to commercially go live soon, we are seeing the interoperability revolution start to materialize.

 

From a technology perspective, much has been achieved and more is on the roadmap for Mojaloop improvement as the default interoperability software platform. Performance, fraud management, settlement, cross currency, versioning, security are among the domains that were earmarked for improvement in the next Program Increment.


HiPipo Foundation Include Everyone team thank and greatly appreciate all the participants and community contributors including Modusbox, Crosslake, and The Level One Project for steering the project to the current achievement. We are looking forward to the next convening in Zanzibar.

Posted on

Include Everyone Summit

*Digital Impact Awards Africa* will be featured under  the *Include Everyone Summit* 

The program constitutes

  1. Interoperability and Open APIs Hackathon,
  2. Include Everyone Summit ,
  3. Digital Impact Awards Africa.

This will bring together different digital and financial inclusion  stakeholders from across Africa. The project will discover and promote products and services plus innovations which are of strategic importance for Africa’s drive to effectively reap maximum digital dividend that will catalyze Africa’s development.

Given the strategic importance of digital inclusion and financial inclusion in Africa, we call upon all players in the different economic sector industries that embrace digital in their businesses, plus those that provide or use financial services to participate.

Find out More

Posted on

Open API and Mojaloop are key to improve Financial Services for the Poor. – Remarks of Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo

An application programming interface (API) “is an architecture that makes it easy for one application to ‘consume’ capabilities or data from another application” (Apigee). It is a protocol that allows software programs to “talk” to one another, defining what information should be supplied and what actions will be taken when it is executed. A common example is Uber’s use of Google Maps.

APIs are important to financial inclusion because they connect third-parties to established payments platforms e.g for M-PESA or MTN MOMO to deliver innovative services that address the needs of many customers.   Many operators including Safaricom, Airtel, Vodacom/Vodafone, Orange, MTN have started initiative to avail their API over the web in what would be called an OPEN API approach. This approach will make it easier for different innovator to integrate to these renown telcom platforms and easily have their financial service for the poor innovations realized.

To go a level higher, Mojaloop which is widely thought and planned to be the potential and ultimate enabler for interoperability avails an open API that any stakeholder integrating into a mojaloop switch will easily have access to.

Innocent Kawooya CEO of HiPipo notes that under our Include Everyone program, We believe that open API, GSMA API and Mojaloop will be key to improve Financial Services for the Poor given the wide scale innovation that they would enable for small, medium and large enterprises and fintechs that are looking to contribute to Financial Inclusion.

Mojaloop grew out of principles set forth by the Financial Services for the Poor team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With support and funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mojaloop was designed by a team of leading tech and fintech companies: Ripple, Dwolla, ModusBox, Software Group and Crosslake Technologies 

Posted on

Mojaloop for National, Regional and International Interoperability – Remarks of Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo

Mojaloop is open-source software for building interoperable digital payments platforms on a national, regional and international scale.  Talk of payments and money transfers between Uganda and Kenya or Tanzania and Nigeria or Benin and Zambia.  At a national scale, it could be payments and money transfers between all banks in the country and mobile money operators in the same country. These kinds of transactions will easily be facilitated by mojaloop.  Mojaloop makes it easier and more affordable for different kinds of providers to link up their services and deploy low-cost financial services in new markets. Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo notes that in order to Include Everyone, we believe that software products and platforms such as mojaloop should be embraced since they will deliver more cost efficient interoperability.

Mojaloop development was funded by The Gates Foundation and is progressed and promoted by the Open Source Community. HiPipo under our Include Everyone Program support and promote the adoption of this software in the Open Source Community to facilitate financial inclusion.