40 Days 40 FinTechs Season Two Kicks Off.

HiPipo today successfully kicked off the 2^nd edition of its 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative, a grand showcase of exhibition, discussion and dialogue that is centered around offering exposure to those innovators that are enabling many, specifically those yet to enjoy financial inclusivity, the opportunity to become part of the digital economy by way of digital financial services.

‘This year we are aiming for a better understanding of the FinTech ecosystem,’ HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya revealed, adding, ’40 Days 40 FinTechs shall feature creators and innovators catering to multiple sectors. We shall also touch on interoperability at all levels, and generate appreciation and leverage for frameworks, like the Level One Project and Mojaloop, that are already in place to enable this’.

First to showcase was the Mallan Company led by its CEO Malcolm Kastiro. They gave exciting updates about their latest product named ‘Yassako’; an instant micro-credit facility for utilities, specifically electricity.

Malcolm revealed that the exposure brought by the inaugural 40 Days 40 FinTechs had boosted ‘Yassako’ uptake, and allowed Mallan to engage in more proactive planning on where they want to take the service. ’40 Days 40 FinTechs helps you go further,’ Malcolm revealed in appreciation.

He added that HiPipo and #40Days40FinTechs can ably further serve as a validation platform for fintechs, and quickly remove barriers to investment and funding, plus also be an asset in attracting the talent the industry needs.

Innocent lauded Yassako as a product that is well aligned with the Level One Project Principles, enabling low income earners to become part of the digital economy.

He further promised that HiPipo is intensifying its support, specifically in relation to documentation and sourcing for grants/funding.

Yassako Explained.

While still in the pilot phase, the Yassako project, an innovation of Mallan Company Limited, has in a space of just a year grown its customer base to over 100 users every day.

The growing interest in the product is a testimony of how Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) are helping solving day-to-day challenges facing millions of Ugandans.

Offered in partnership with Airtel Money, Yassako is an instant micro-credit emergency solution that enables users to recharge their pre-paid Yaka electricity on credit any time.

The product was introduced after Mallan Company, which specializes in Value Added Services and advanced credit services in the mobile payments space, noticed a gap in the market, when some Ugandans were running out of Yaka ( Electricity) units in weird hours after Umeme shifted its metering system from post-paid to pre-paid, something most Ugandans were not prepared for.

The solution has turned out to be a life saver for many Ugandans, who can now get electricity units on credit and pay within a maximum 30 days.

The company for now offers a minimum of sh2, 000 worth of Yaka units and a maximum of sh10, 000. Each credit attracts 15% service fee, according to Malcolm Kastiro, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Mallan Company Limited.

Kastiro explains that the low figures are intentional, given that it is an emergency solution. Additionally, they want to ensure that the amounts are not so big for customers to pay back.

“We just take you through that small fix you are in for that moment; probably it is lights, ironing or cooking. We allow you to get enough electricity units to do what you want to do so that the next day you go and purchase electricity,” Kastiro says.

Given that the service is offered in partnership with Airtel, it is for now available to Airtel customers only. Kastiro, however, says that the company is in talks with MTN to have the service offered to its customers too.

Additionally, he notes that the company has plans to roll out the credit solution to pay television service providers such as Dstv and GoTv among others.

However, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) customers will have to wait a little longer as Kastiro says that the post-paid nature of bill payment makes it tricky. Additionally, the bills involved are also too big.

He, however, expresses optimism that since NWSC has plans to introduce the pre-paid metering system, they will engage it once the system in rolled out in future.

Additionally, there are also plans to engage other electricity distributors, especially those serving the upcountry areas, offer the service to their pre-paid users.

Eligibility

For one to qualify for the Yassako credit solution, s/he must have been an Airtel subscriber for at least three months. To qualify for a certain amount of credit, one must have spent at least twice the credit value they are requesting for.

40 Days 40 FinTechs

Mallan Company Limited featured on Day One of the second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organised by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, Level One Project and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

The initiative which provides a platform for FinTechs and stakeholders in the digital and financial technology space to exhibit their products and share ideas, seeks to boost the African FinTech ecosystem to enable innovators enjoy sustainable profitability to help them design and deploy affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor.

Kastiro says that the 40-Days 40 FinTechs has given it a platform to reach more customers, interact and engage with other key stakeholders.

Kastiro notes that Mallan Company implements LevelOneProject principles such as real time payment and same day settlement. Additionally, he says that the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) principle is also key as they cannot extend credit to someone that we don’t know.

“We must have information about you so that we do the credit scoring, so that we know whether you qualify and if you do, how much do you qualify for. These are fundamental features that we need for us to offer a good service,” he notes.

At the end of the day One session, the HiPipo chief executive officer Innocent Kawooya noted: “We are proud to kick off the 40-Days 40 FinTechs season Two by showcasing Mallan Group. Initially mooted in our first edition, we are glad that it is now ready for market, in no small part due to the support 40-Days 40 FinTechs offered and continues to do so.”

He added that Yassako is a fine example of the transformative technology that can positively change societies and communities.

“This is the first of its kind in East Africa and on the entire African continent that enables customers get electricity on credit. It offers great opportunity for home businesses and SMEs that might need critical assistance at vital points of the production value chain,” Kawooya says.

He adds: “ As we talk of digital lending, borrowing and all other service points on the digital ecosystem, it should not be forgotten how vital it is that products like Yassako exist to help and attract many to on-board onto digital rails, taking the first crucial step to financial inclusivity.”

Despite the enacting of the National Payments Systems Act mid this year, Kastiro, however, says that it poses a risk of creating monopolistic tendencies in the industry, given the stringent requirements required to get an operation license.

#LevelOneProject

December 18, 2020December 18, 2020

We want Interoperable Financial Solutions, Users tell FinTechs

Our Reporter.

Financial Technology stakeholders have witnessed a lot of positives in 2020 even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented effects on people and economies globally. But that doesn’t remove the fact that this has been a rough and tough year.

The highlight of the year saw world leaders imploring their citizens to embrace digital financial services (DFS) and other electronic services as means of curbing the spread of the dreaded novel corona virus.

In Uganda, the uptake of digital financial services, e-commerce, e-agriculture, e-education and e-health among others has been remarkable this year with more people adjusting to what is now the new normal.

The cardinal role that fintechs are playing in the new normal was acknowledged at the 2020 Digital and Financial Inclusion summit featuring the Digital Impact Awards Africa.

Prof. Maggie Kigozi, a Ugandan Business Leader and the event guest of honour underscored the economy saving role that the Financial Technology industry has played during these unprecedented Covid-19 times, existing challenges notwithstanding.

“I want to appreciate the young generation for seeing opportunities, jumping up to them and delivering products and solutions that we all use. I urge the Financial Technology Ecosystem players to continue working together to address any challenges. There are still a few problems here and there. But Financial Inclusion is happening,” Prof. Maggie Kigozi said.

But then the issue of access to devices and internet continues to obstruct digital and financial inclusion. To this, UNCDF’s digital country lead, Chris Lukolyo urged innovators to develop products that directly target the last mile users as this will in turn force the big players to pay more attention to addressing the devices and internet access challenges.

“The people being left out are mostly rural, immigrants and refugee communities. At UNCDF, we have piloted something called the Digital Community Entrepreneur where we are leveraging the people in the community to reach out to the doorstep, the last mile audience with digital related products and services. There are also locally manufactured devices now. It is a step in the right direction and can help to reduce the costs of devices,” Lukolyo said, adding;

“Indeed Internet access is still very expensive especially here. A lot of work still needs to be done to address this. Part of UNCDF’s strategy of not leaving anyone behind in the digital era is to foster inclusive innovation. If you can innovate with underserved communities in mind, you can come up with those viable business models that will attract the big service providers such as MTN to get down there and reduce access costs because there is money to be made.”

The digital and financial inclusion summit which was a culmination of the 2020 Include EveryOne Program was organized by HiPipo, in partnership with ModusBox, Mojaloop Foundation, Level One Project and United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

In her keynote address, Damali Ssali, a Ugandan senior chartered accountant and trade development expert recommended that for Africa to achieve full Digital and Financial Inclusion, it must fix the regulatory framework, adopt interoperability and push for digitalization of government services.

“Digital and Financial Technology regulations should be reviewed and enhanced so that they facilitate rather than curtail financial inclusion. Providers of digital financial services should develop solutions that are interoperable and meet Level One Project Principles such as tiered KYC, and affordable devices,” Damali Ssali noted, adding;

“In any country, government is the largest provider of financial services. Governments need to embrace digital technology in the provision of public goods and services to all people. This will catalyse and speed up the rate at which financial inclusion is attained. Governments must develop infrastructure backbone to digitize the provision of financial services in a manner that is inclusive.”

Inclusive Panel Discussions.

The summit had five gender balanced panel discussions that decoded the facts and myths about digital and financial inclusion in Uganda and Africa at large. Altogether, there were 22 Panelists including 11 women.

COVID-19 and its impact on Women Business Panel discussion at the 2020 Digital and Financial Inclusion summit held on 11th December at Mestil Hotel.

“The gender diversity challenge in the Financial Technology industry is well documented. Mere talking about it is not a solution. Instead, we must make sure that both genders are well represented at every level if we are to achieve last mile digital and financial inclusion,” Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo CEO said, adding;

“It is not by mistake that 50 per cent of our 22 panelists today are women. It is also not by mistake that both our keynote speaker and guest of honour are women. We are deliberately engaging more women because we know that even though they are the majority gender, they are least included. HiPipo is playing its part in addressing the gender issue. You too play your part. We thank all our partners – UNCDF, ModusBox, Mojaloop Foundation and Level One Project for contributing to the success of this summit and other activities we have undertaken in 2020.”

The first panel was themed Financial Inclusion for Women – How do we minimize and recover from Covid Impact on Women? It had Barbra Kahunde – Project Manager Pebuu Africa, Lyn Tukei – Head of Marketing and Communications at Xente, Mbabazi Suzan – Engineer and Kameeza Team Leader and Yvonne Mpanga – Business Development Consultant.

“Digitalization is a must for our recovery from the impact of COVID-19 on trade and business. Most women love technology and will surely adopt it if well guided and sensitized. But the most important thing for me is ensuring that we are healthy because COVID-19 is still here,” Yvonne Mpanga noted.

The second panel was Securing the Fintech Ecosystem – How do we effectively collaborate? The discussants were Jane Mugenyi – Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Sales at the MFS section of MTN Uganda, Ronald Azairwe – Managing Director of Pegasus Technologies, Paul Tamale – Manager Card and Acquiring at Stanbic Bank and Nathan Levi Dragudi Ocatre–Implementation Manager, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered.

This panel came at the back of a ‘mobile money fraud’ that affected Pegasus Technologies, Stanbic Bank, MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda around September and October 2020. Different discussants weighed in on how to safeguard the industry from such incidences now and in the future.

“There was a money heist like you have called it. But what I can assure you is that the customer wallets were not affected. No customer lost any money. Being a technology platform, we have continuous controls in place using both internal and external auditors to ensure that this does not happen again. We need to use digital identity as a platform in order to reduce such cases. If we have a digital identity of somebody who performed a suspicious transaction in MTN, then we could share with Stanbic, Stan Chart and Airtel etc so that when this same person goes to perform transactions elsewhere, s/he is already blacklisted,” MTN Uganda’s Jane Mugenyi said.

Pegasus managing director Ronald Azairwe added; “The most important thing is having digital identity. There must be a rigorous process of identifying every individual and relating every transaction to an individual. Yes, it is a bit of an intrusive process but there is nothing we can do to avoid that. We need to reach a point where everything digital is linked to your NIRA National ID.”

Then came the third panel – Building the Rails: Interoperability with Private Sector Led Real-time Payments Switch: How do we achieve it? The Panelists were Peter Kakoma – Kanzu Code CEO, John Mark Ssebunnya – FinTech Platforms Architect at MTN Group, Doreen Lukandwa – Beyonic Director Marketing and Customer Success, Paul Tamale – Stanbic Manager Card and Acquiring and Nathan Levi Dragudi Ocatre– Standard Chartered Implementation Manager, Transaction Banking.

This was a special one as it envisioned financial inclusion powered by interoperability, collaboration and competition.

“There is a framework that can help all industry players understand where we can compete and where we can collaborate in real time payment systems. The framework has what we call the rails which in this case are the infrastructure. It also has the rules. We can always collaborate on the rails and the rules. Then we can be left to compete on the accounts and applications. All players must be aware that both collaboration and competition can co-exist,” MTN Group’s John Mark Ssebunnya noted.

The fourth panel addressed the 2020 National Payments Act that is currently under review with both players and the regulator working on ensuring that the law doesn’t lock out anyone but instead develops the industry without prejudice to players – big or small.

This panel discussion had Financial Technology Service Providers Association (FITSPA) Company Secretary also Bowmans lawyer – Brian Kalule, Mallan Group CEO – Malcolm Kastiro, YOTV Channels CEO – Aggrey Mugisha and Beyonic Director Marketing and Customer Success – Doreen Lukandwa.

Beyonic’s Doreen Lukandwa summed up the National Payment ACT by noting that “this regulation has come with a lot of positives, credibility, control and trying to make the ground levelled for all players involved in this particular space. It is going to be very important for the regulator to engage all the stakeholders in this space on a regular basis not just once a year but monthly and ensuring that this regulation is suited for Uganda and serves Ugandans.”

Come in Informal Traders.

After these four panels, it was clear that all the key issues touching on the Fintech industry had been competently discussed and recommendations made.

But then came the Financial Inclusion for Women Informal Traders panel discussion – a super climax that the Digital and Financial inclusion summit needed.

During this panel, Women Traders from across Kampala City asked Financial Technology Stakeholders, and E-commerce players to focus on both Real Time payments and Traders’ Training as these two are the main impediments to online transactions embrace.

The Women Traders drawn from Bugolobi, Wandegeya, Kalerwe, Mpererwe and Kitintale Markets noted that even though online transactions have saved businesses and lives during these unprecedented Covid-19 times, failure by Financial Technology players to do Real Time payments, Limited Training and Lack of latest Online Trade tools have slowed further uptake.

“There hasn’t been huge embrace of the online and technology based business in Kitintale market. We haven’t had sufficient training on online trade. We also don’t have the right tools of trade. This explains the low uptake among vendors in our market,” Nakaketo Samalie Nkata, a Women Traders’ Leader from Kitintale Market said.

Grace Akiiki, the Chairperson of Wandegeya Market Women Traders candidly noted; “We had embraced e-commerce in Wandegeya market. But we got a huge challenge of delayed and sometimes no payments from an E-commerce player we were working with. When someone orders online, they order for goods that you don’t even have on your stall. So you have to use your cash to purchase the missing items and prepare this order with hope that you will be paid immediately. But then the payment delays or never comes.”

The issues shared by these traders made up much of the discussions at this event with different speakers acknowledging the need for the industry players to implement Financial Inclusion best practices such as same day settlements, tiered KYC, Low Cost User Devices and real time funds transfer.

Damali Ssali, pleaded with Financial Technology and E-Commerce players to walk the digital and financial inclusion talk by ensuring that they train traders and also make payments for sold goods in real time.

“It is unfair that an informal trader in Kalerwe market has to offer credit to big e-commerce and FinTech players then wait for days before a payment is made. The Financial Technology industry must embrace the Level One Project principle of same day settlement. Payments for goods sold must be instantly remitted to seller through mobile money or bank,” Damali Ssali said, adding;

“Again, the FinTechs and E-commerce players must take lead on educating the traders on how this industry works. If well trained and empowered, more traders will make informed decisions and embrace online transactions.”

Additionally, in his presentation titled The Inclusive Digital Economy, Steve Haley, the Director Economic Development at ModusBox emphasized that excluding millions of people from digital financial services not only hurts business owners but also stifles economic growth.

“Small business owners don’t have any option to wait days for their money to settle in to their accounts. Their lives and businesses depend on day to day income. As such they need interoperable real-time solutions. Interoperability will enable the innovation needed to make digital payments inclusive and affordable while pouring money in to the transaction economy and supercharging the ecosystem. All we need is a single real-time payment network solution, and that is Mojaloop.”

#DIAA2020

The Awards were a culmination of the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit organized by HiPipo in partnership with ModusBox, Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation and UNCDF.

The Digital Impact Awards Africa seeks to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities. Winners are those with the highest score from a combined Jury and Public voting process.

The 2020 winners included Standard Chartered for Digital Brand of the Year Award, Stanbic Bank took the Cards Payments Excellence Award, Jumia won E-Commerce Innovation Excellence, Centenary Bank won the Community Bank Excellence Award while Jumia was voted as Best Consumer Goods Brand on Social Media.

The special recognition for Regulatory Financial Inclusion Rails Award went to Bank of Tanzania (BoT) for their implementation of the Tanzania Instant Payment System (TIPS) while Doreen Lukandwa to the Women in Fintech Leadership Award.

Here is the full list of the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa winners.

November 17, 2020

#IncludeEveryone: Nominees for the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa – #DIAA2020 released

#IncludeEveryone: Nominees for the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa – #DIAA2020 released.

17/11/2020

For Immediate Release.

HiPipo; the organizers of the annual Digital Impact Awards Africa have today released the list of nominees for the 7^th edition of the annual Digital Impact Awards Africa (#DIAA2020).

Digital Impact Awards Africa is Africa’s most important gathering of C-Level Executives and senior Digital and IT executives.

The release of the nominations marks the end of a comprehensive entry submission and validation exercise that ran from 19^th October to 10^th November 2020. #DIAA2020 grand finale is scheduled for 11^th December at Mestil Hotel, Kampala.

Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Cyber Security.

In other words, the Awards seek to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities.

Altogether, there are 36 categories in the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa including 17 that recognize best performing digital and financial players from across Africa and 19 categories purely focused on Uganda.

The #DIAA2020 edition comes in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic; an unprecedented period that has on one hand wreaked socio-economic havoc across the world, but on the other hand further showcased the life- serving and saving capacity of digital-financial services (DFS).

The 36 categories include two special recognitions. These are: Regulatory Financial Inclusion Rails Award, and Women in FinTech Leadership Award.

Regulatory Financial Inclusion Rails Award

World over, regulators are key enablers of financial inclusion in some cases by adopting provision of digital financial infrastructure as a public good. Regulators lead the provision of a national digital identity to all residents, the development of a real-time payment systems and the establishment of a favourable legal framework. The Digital Impact Awards Africa ‘Regulatory Financial Inclusion Rails Award’ is a special recognition of initiatives, programs and projects that are setting up the needed financial inclusion infrastructure rails with key emphasis on instant (real-time) payments platforms in Africa.

Women in FinTech Leadership Award

Just like most countries especially in Africa, Uganda still struggles with a huge gender diversity challenge in the financial technology space. Only 10 per cent of the 41 FinTechs that took part in the 2020 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative had either women co-founders or women in their senior management. The limited involvement of Women in Financial Technology is unfortunate because they are the majority gender world over and most importantly, their last-mile utilisation of financial technology solutions is very high. As such, the #DIAA2020 ‘Women in FinTech Leadership Award’ seeks to recognize and appreciate a Woman that is taking lead in bridging the aforementioned gender diversity challenge.

Minus these two special recognitions, the rest of the categories will include jury assessment and public voting that will commence on Thursday 19^th November until the eve of the awards.

The awards gala will be the climax of the #IncludeEveryone – Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit that will happen on the same day.

This summit will explore the strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of Digital, IT and business. The summit theme will be “Collaboration to Advance Safety and Security towards Sustainable Financial Inclusion”.

We wish to congratulate all the nominees and now implore them and the entire public to take part in the voting exercise.

The official hash tags for this project are #DIAA2020, #IncludeEveryOne and #LevelOneProject

Click here to see #DIAA2020 nominees.

October 20, 2020October 20, 2020

#IncludeEveryOne: Entries’ Submission for the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa – #DIAA2020 kick off.

HiPipo; the organizers of the annual Digital Impact Awards Africa have started receiving entries for the 2020 Digital Impact Awards Africa (#DIAA2020). Digital Impact Awards Africa is Africa’s most important gathering of C-Level Executives, and senior Digital and IT executives.

The kick-off of the entries’ submission marks the start of a comprehensive entry submission and validation process that will run until 2^nd November, 2020. This will be followed by release of nominations and public voting.

The #DIAA2020 grand finale is slated for the afternoon of Thursday 26^th November. It will be preceded by the annual Include Everyone Summit (aka Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit) on the same day.

#DIAA2020 grand finale is scheduled for 28^th November 2020 at the Kampala Sheraton Hotel. The awards gala will be the climax of the Include Everyone – Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit that will happen on the same day. This summit will explore the strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of Digital, IT and business. The summit theme will be “Collaboration To Advance Safety and Security Towards Sustainable Financial Inclusion”.

Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Cybersecurity. Precisely; the Awards seek to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities.

All qualifying organisations and projects are called upon to submit their entries ahead of the entry closure date of 2^nd November 2020.

The summit and awards will use 3 official tags

#IncludeEveryone #DIAA2020 #LevelOneProject

Appended below is a list of categories.

Ends!

Categories.

Africa

Africa (KENYA) Outstanding Contribution to Financial Inclusion
Africa (TANZANIA) Outstanding Contribution to Financial Inclusion
Africa (RWANDA) Outstanding Contribution to Financial Inclusion
Africa (ETHIOPIA) Outstanding Contribution to Financial Inclusion
Africa (BURUNDI) Outstanding Contribution to Financial Inclusion
Africa Best Fintech Innovation
Africa Best Smart Device Initiative
Africa Best Internet Access Initiative
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Health
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Agriculture
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Education
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Banking
Africa WomenInFintech – Leadership Award (Personality)
Africa Financial Inclusion – Medal of Honor (Personality)
Africa Best Digital Response to Covid Impact (Community Support)
Africa Best Digital Response to Covid Impact (Consumer Product and Services)
Africa Best Digital Response to Covid Impact (Financial Inclusion Services)

Uganda

Financial Inclusion Excellence – Diamond (Corporate 10+ Years)
Financial Inclusion Excellence -Platinum (Corporate 6-9 Years)
Fintech Outstanding Contribution (40Days40Fintechs) – Gold (SME- 10+ Years)
Fintech Outstanding Contribution (40Days40Fintechs) – Silver (SME – 6-9 Years)
Fintech Outstanding Contribution (40Days40Fintechs) – Bronze (SME -2-5 Years)
Women Financial Inclusion Outstanding Contribution (Saving and Lending)
Women Financial Inclusion Outstanding Contribution (Payments)
Women Financial Inclusion Outstanding Contribution (Insurance)
Digital Banking Excellence (Online/Web, Mobile, Social Banking)
E-Commerce Excellence
Agriculture Digitization Excellence (Financial Services)
Agriculture Digitization Excellence (E-commerce)
Green Energy Excellence Powered by Financial Inclusion.
Best Digital Customer Experience (Financial Services, Telecom, IT)
Best Digital Customer Experience (Utilities and Government Services)
Best Brand on Social Media (Financial Services, Telecom, IT)
Best Brand on Social Media (Consumer Goods)
Best Brand on Social Media (Utilities, Government Services)
Best Digital Powered Campaign
Best Mobile Payments (Innovation)
Best Cards Payments (Innovation)
Best Community Banking
Best Digital Awareness Initiative (Financial Literacy, Cybersecurity)
Best Digital Embrace (Non-Consumer Facing Brand)
Digital Brand of the Year

September 19, 2020

FinTechs urged to tap into Women entrepreneurs.

Our Reporter.

Ugandan Financial Technology (FinTech) companies have been advised to involve more women in the conceptualization, designing and development of Fintech products and solutions that can tap into the underserved market segment of Ugandan women entrepreneurs.

Damali Ssali, a Chartered Accountant, Business and Trade Development Expert, says that in a country where 48 per cent of all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are owned by women, it is paramount to develop financial inclusion solutions spearheaded by women.

“Over 70 per cent of informal cross border trader women need access to affordable fintech solutions. That segment is a ready market for innovative fintech solutions which can only be designed and developed through greater increase in women in fintech processes,” Ssali said while delivering a key note address titled Women in FinTech – the Case of Uganda at the maiden Women in Fintech Summit held at Sheraton Kampala Hotel on Friday 18^th September under the theme fostering leadership, innovation and championing women empowerment.

The summit was the culmination of a week-long Women in FinTech Hackathon where 15 women-led teams met between 12^th and 17^th September 2020 to conceptualize and develop different financial inclusion products with special focus on women in areas such as payments, lending, saving, e-commerce, e-education and e-agriculture, among others.

Organized by HiPipo under the Include EveryOne program in proud partnership with ID8, Crosslake Tech, ModusBox, Mojaloop Foundation and the Level One Project; the Women in Fintech Hackathon and Summit sought to generate interoperable financial inclusion solutions for women, by women.

According to Ssali, this initiative is a step in the right direction. She, however, stressed that if Ugandan Fintechs are to design products and solutions that reflect the actual customers, then they must increase the number of women in Fintech from the current 10 per cent to 50 per cent!

At the recent 40-Days-40-Fintechs initiative organised by HiPipo, it was discovered that only 10 per cent percent of the participating Fintechs had women as their co-founders or part of their senior management.

“Therefore, having women in fintech in not only the right thing to do, and moral thing to do, but most importantly, it is the smart thing to do and the profitable thing to do!” she said.

Ssali’s argument was re-echoed by Hon Judith Nabakooba, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, who promised government support in development of ICT solutions targeting women.

“As a sector we need to implement interventions that remove roadblocks to access and usage of ICTs by women such as reducing the digital divide between urban and rural dwellers by availing ICTs to the underserved communities; promoting the digital literacy of women so that more can use ICTs,” she said in a written speech read in her absensia by Judith Odio, a Commissioner from the Ministry of ICT.

In the same vein, Adama Diallo, the Mojaloop Foundation Director and Google Head of Partnership for the next billion users project in Africa, said in a recorded video that in a world where three quarters (¾) of purchases are done by women, Fintechs urgently need to be female-centric.

Further, Kristy Duncan, the founder and CEO of Women in Payments delivered a speech under the theme Funding Wellsprings for Women in Fintech.

Kristy Duncan noted that digital financial inclusion is vitally important as it will empower women and girls to a life of equal opportunity.

“We need more women in fintech to promote innovation. Because if we don’t include women innovators, then we are only innovating with half the population,” she said.

There was also a panel discussion targeting Financial Inclusion for women at the bottom of the pyramid and all panelists agreed that such women need a simple, convenient and fit-for-purpose mobile solution.

Moderated by Ritah Kabanyoro from Smart 24 TV; the panel had Primera Muthoni – Products Specialist at MTN Uganda, Doreen Lukandwa – Head of Marketing and Customer Experience at Beyonic Uganda, Penny Kamusiime – Manager, Customer Experience at YO Uganda Limited and Stella N. Lugalambi –co-founder of Hamwe East Africa Ltd.

SUCCESSFUL.

Nicholas Kalungi, the chief operation officer at HiPipo Foundation noted that the Women in Fintech Hackathon and Summit had succeeded both in objective and implementation. Besides being the first of its kind in Uganda, Kalungi noted that over 30 teams expressed interest in participating but only 15 were shortlisted for the Hackathon. These were Yo Uganda Limited, Team Spec, E-Moments, W-Sacco, Kanzu Code Ladies, GreenGrab, Achors, UgMart, Hack Girls, Team Kameeza, Alpteq ICT Solutions, Team Affinity, Sky Code, Team Time and Kuzimba Services. Save for one, the other 14 actively participated throughout the week.

The teams were taken through daily interactions with a pool of facilitators, mentors and assessors from all over the world who were either physically present or accessible remotely via ID8, Slack and other virtual platforms.

They were then tasked to develop simple but relevant and ready-for-market financial inclusion products targeting women.

At the Women in FinTech Summit, five teams were identified as having performed better than the rest. These were Kanzu Code, E-Moments, Anchors, Affinity and Hack Girls.

The overall winners as scored by the jury were Kanzu Code Ladies and walked home with USD 2,000 to be used to put their product on the market. They developed an online bank to ease access to finance for local women. The other 4 teams that made the top five will together share USD 2,000.

L to R : HiPipo Chairman – Eng John Mark Ssebunnya, HiPipo Patron – Hon Eng. David Karubanga and HiPipo CEO – Innocent Kawooya do a scientific greeting at the Women in FinTech Summit held at Sheraton Hotel.

Meanwhile, HiPipo CEO – Innocent Kawooya applauded all participating teams as “all winners” and promised that there was a plan to create an innovation hub for all of them to ensure that their ideas are actualized and their products go to market.

At the summit, the HiPipo patron, Eng. David Karubanga – who is also the State Minister for Public Service and Member of Parliament for Kigorobya County applauded the organizers for thinking about Women as the world grapples to reduce the dominance of men in all sectors. He also promised government support in fulfilling this dream of enhancing women financial inclusion.

FACTFILE:

Globally, women entrepreneurs are 30% less likely to have access to sufficient funding for their businesses.
However, Women entrepreneurs continue to receive only a small fraction of the total capital available for SME investment across Africa generally and Uganda specifically.
In Uganda, bank lending is dominated by the corporate sector and typically excludes lending to those employed outside of the formal sector, or to small and micro businesses, areas in which women are more likely to be employed.
In 2018, Bank of Uganda reported in that informal cross border trade stood at USD595million and Uganda registered a trade surplus.
In 2015, a McKinsey and Company study indicated that companies that had a balanced and inclusive workforce were 33% more likely to have better than average profits.
A Boston Consulting Group study indicated that companies with a balanced and inclusive senior management teams had 19% higher revenues due to innovation

September 17, 2020

“People not only buy your product but buy into you. Be smart because you are the business yourself,” Doreen Lukandwa told Young Developers.

Doreen Lukandwa; the Head of Marketing and Customer Success at Beyonic Uganda has urged start-ups to pay special attention to both customers’ acquisition and retention as these two are core pillars of business success.

While delivering the final mentorship session at the just concluded Women in FinTech Hackathon held in Kampala, Doreen Lukandwa took the participants through the 7Ps of the market mix, that is to say; Product, Place, Price, Promotion, Physical Evidence, People, and Processes.

“Marketing is not something that you just pick from the back of your pocket and say that I need a marketing person. You can actually do the marketing yourself. Every day you talk about your business, you are marketing it. You must understand your customer. When you know who you want to speak to then you know how you are going to get your money back through pricing,” Doreen Lukandwa said, adding;

“People not only buy your product but they buy into you. Look smart; don’t take that for granted because you are the business yourself.”

Organized by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne program in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox, Mojaloop Foundation and Level One Project, this women focused hackathon has participants conceptualizing and developing different financial inclusion products with special focus on women in areas such as payments, lending, saving, e-commerce, e-education and e-agriculture among others.

Day 5 was the final day of this week long Women in FinTech Hackathon. Teams pitched their products to the jury and now waiting for the final scores. The team with the best product will be announced tomorrow, Friday 18^th September at the Women in FinTech summit at Sheraton Hotel.

Ends.

September 16, 2020September 17, 2020

There is no ‘perfect product’. Go to Market but continue improving your product – Primera Muthoni tells Young Developers.

Primera Muthoni; a Products Specialist at MTN Uganda, Leading Innovator and Entrepreneur has today challenged young developers to always ensure that they execute a proper product roll-out plan because ‘Going to Market’ is as important as Product Development.

Primera Muthoni said this while delivering a mentorship session around Technology and Product Go to Market at the 4^th day of the Women in FinTech Hackathon that is currently underway in Kampala, Uganda.

With over 10 years’ experience in Telecoms’ products develop and marketing, she shared special insights on when to roll-out a product, how to handle the first launch days and what happens thereafter with focus on the fact that there is no perfect product, and thus all products require upgrades from time to time.

“Not yet good enough to go to market? This is the story today. I have had my app in the market for six years. The day we went to market, it had like two, three features but we went to the market. We have been adding more features and functions all this time,” Primera Muthoni said.

She added: “I have SMSs that clock in my phone every hour. I have emails every single morning showing me statistics of the last seven days plus all sorts of notifications. This is because if there’s a problem with my product, I want to be the first person to see and know it. I am the owner of that product. I do not want the tech team telling me. I don’t want the developer telling me. I don’t want that stuff. I want to know and keep updated because I know that I can never create a product that is problem free completely.”

Minus the mentorship session, the fourth day of the Women in FinTech Hackathon had teams get introduced to the Level One Principle of Level 1 Principle of Scheme Design & Governance, tackled MVP (minimum viable product) details, and forex cross country use case. The hackathon will culminate in to the Women in FinTech summit on Friday 18^th September.

Important Dates.

12 September: Women in FinTech hackathon kicks off.
14^th to 17^th September: Women in FinTech hackathon underway.
18^th September: Women in Fintech summit.

Ends.

September 15, 2020

Financial Management is as important as Product Development – Damali Ssali.

Damali Ssali; a Ugandan Chartered Accountant, Financial Inclusion Advocate, Business and Trade Development Expert has today urged start-ups to prioritize both proper financial management and quality products development because both are critical to the success of any business.

Damali Ssali made these remarks while delivering a mentorship session themed Business Financing and Financial Management at the third day of the Women in Fintech hackathon that is currently underway in Kampala, Uganda.

“Financial Management is as important as Product Development. I know you are developers and very competent in that field. It is not surprising that almost none of the 14 teams here are working with a financial expert. While this is fine right now, it cannot continue like this,” Damali Ssali noted, adding:

“You need to understand your business figures. The value of your product, the time you have spent on it and everything you have injected in. Even if you have a good product, if you don’t manage your finances properly, then you will face break-even challenges.”

According to different studies, over 82 per cent of small businesses fail due to cash flow problems, a fact that makes prudent financial management a must if a business is to succeed.

The third day of the Women in FinTech Hackathon saw teams work on APPs integrations with APIs, discussed the Level One Principle of System Design and went through the Digital Financial Service Provider (DFSP) Boarding Journey.

The hackathon will culminate in to the Women in FinTech summit on Friday 18^th September.

Important Dates.

12 September: Women in FinTech hackathon kicks off.
14^th to 17^th September: Women in FinTech hackathon underway.
18^th September: Women in Fintech summit.

Ends.

September 15, 2020

Be Confident and Accept Humble Beginnings – Prof Maggie Kigozi tells Young Developers.

Prof Maggie Kigozi; a Ugandan Business Champion, Investment Promotion Expert, Entrepreneur, Farmer, Feminist, Chairperson of the Africa Scout Foundation and Senior Consultant at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has today asked young developers to work on their confidence and also respect humble beginnings.

“Confidence is key for business success and for us women, it is sometimes lacking. I urge you to do your best to work on your confidence. Talk to each other, and challenge yourselves to get better,” Prof Kigozi, the chief mentor at the on-going Women in FinTech Hackathon said while addressing the over 50 participants today.

She added: “It is okay to start small and grow gradually. Look for capital from right sources such as family, friends’ groups, Saccos and banks. Please don’t go to the money lenders who simply ask for Car Cards or Land Titles in exchange for short term loans. That is not a good way of sourcing for business capital. I encourage you to have some patience, be able to save and use formal financial institutions such as banks. Business takes sometime unless you are very lucky.”

On the second day of the hackathon, the 14 teams showcased their Solution Design and Prototypes. They were also introduced to latest tools to use (such as Mojaloop), different APIs and use cases.

Innocent Kawooya, the CEO of HiPipo thanked Prof Maggie Kigozi for always finding time to help young and small organisations. He noted that HiPipo is one of the beneficiaries of Prof Maggie Kigozi’s mentorship and business coaching. He presented a Special Fibre Mosaic Art Piece to her in appreciation of her contribution to developing Uganda.

The Women in FinTech Hackathon and Summit come at the back of the great success of the recently concluded 40 Days 40 Fintechs initiative and the FinTech Landscape Exhibition that attracted over 100 financial sector organisations from all over the world, between May 13 and July 30^th 2020.

Important Dates.

12 September: Women in FinTech hackathon kicks off.
14^th to 17^th September: Women in FinTech hackathon underway.
18^th September: Women in Fintech summit.

Ends.

September 14, 2020

Women in FinTech Hackathon underway.

13^th, September, 2020: The first of its kind Women in FinTech Hackathon is currently underway in Kampala with 15 women led and dominated teams taking part.

The participants are conceptualizing and developing different financial inclusion products with special focus on women in areas such as payments, lending, saving, e-commerce, e-education and e-agriculture among others.

As part of the project, all teams are interacting with a pool of facilitators, mentors and assessors pulled together from all over the world but mainly accessible remotely via ID8, Slack and other virtual platforms.

Organized by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne program in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox, Mojaloop Foundation and Level One Project, this women focused hackathon will culminate in to the Women in FinTech summit on Friday 18^th September.

“We are excited to deliver this. Day One had all teams get introduced to latest financial inclusion tools, detailed discussions around level one principles, submission of each team’s problem statement and business case,” Nicholas Kalungi, the COO of HiPipo, noted on Saturday 12^th September, the first day of this Hackathon.

He added; “The next four days are very crucial to the success of each team. The teams are doing their work and getting continuous guidance from facilitators, mentors and assessors both on site and remotely. We are convinced that this is the start of something amazing for all of the participants.”

Important Dates.

12 September: Women in FinTech hackathon kicks off.
14^th to 17^th September: Women in FinTech hackathon underway.
18^th September: Women in Fintech summit.

Ends.