Category: Women In FinTech

Our Reporter.

Anyone doing business in Uganda will tell you that paying rent is one of their biggest nightmares. Whether you have made profits or not; whether you have spent the month sick or away attending to a patient, or whether you were in a Covid-19 lockdown; the landlord will always want their rent paid in full and on time!    

Failure to pay rent has actually been identified as one of the biggest reasons for the high turnover of businesses, especially in city arcades and malls.

It is against this background that Merchandise Uganda – an online marketplace – was formed.

Nurudin Busingye, the Merchandise Uganda General Manager says prevailing trends call for cheaper ways of doing business, and nothing beats online trading in cost-effectiveness.

“We realized that there is a lot of inequality in business where people don’t have money to rent at strategic locations. So, we said you can have your stock at home or you can import products and put them in a warehouse and open up an online shop on Merchandise Uganda to showcase your products to both local and international markets,” Busingye said.

On top of this, there is an estimated 20 million Ugandans who don’t have access to markets yet they have products to sell. And the rest of the population is looking for those products.

“So, at Merchandise Uganda, we developed this system to ensure that sellers have access to buyers and vice versa with just the use of their phones or computers,” he adds, noting that the main focus is on women SMEs.

“We see ourselves as a revolutionary company transforming traditional trade to global trade. People now work from home and have adopted technology; our goal is to ensure that Ugandan products are known not only to the local market but also the global market.”

HOW IT WORKS

When you have a business or products to sell, you just visit www.merchandiseuganda.com and open up a shop. A seller/trader is required to provide their name or business name, location, contact details, good photos of products and videos of how the products work (if need be).

When someone wants a product, they go to the website or download the Merchandise Uganda app and search for the product they want. Then people with such a product will be listed and the client can contact them directly.

“We have a partnership with delivery companies. All our suppliers are assigned to these logistics companies. So, when the client makes an order, the delivery company is notified to pick the product and deliver it,” he says, noting that clients use mobile money and banks to make payments.

“We are working on creating e-wallets to create a complete eco system…”

Started in 2019, Busingye says the Covid-19 pandemic saw a huge rise in the number of users with numbers jumping from less than 200 to more than 600 in just one year and more than 10 million product views.

“This is a good number. Remember these people don’t go to Merchandise Uganda to chat; they go there to do business,” he says.

Going International.

Merchandise Uganda is the 12^th participant in this year’s 40 Day 40 Fintechs initiative by HiPipo.

Now in its third edition, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

Busingye is full of praise for the 40 Day 40 Fintechs initiative for having given them free publicity in last year’s edition which is already paying dividends.

“We recently had a partnership with a European company which wants to do business with Ugandan suppliers. We also got contacts in South Africa who want us to open a branch that side. All this was a result of the 40 Days 40 Fintechs 2021 edition,” he says.

And for Innocent Kawooya, the CEO HiPipo, this revelation is testament to their mission of connecting the global markets.

“The beauty about the digital market is that it has no barriers, and no borders. Merchandise Uganda’s story gives us the satisfaction our goal of Including Everyone is taking shape,” he said.

Busingye however calls for more sensitization of Ugandans about the use of technology and digital tools.

He adds that they introduced a program to support women get online shops for free.

“We are conducting trainings for women. We have over 65% women-led businesses on our platform. Our aim is not to make money, but to support the communities, especially women,” he says.

Meanwhile, Kawooya says Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

He added that this year’s edition seeks to cement achievements of the previous editions – such as Merchandise Uganda – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.

“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” he said.

Our Reporter.

The past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic literally placed everyone in their right place – for both good and bad reasons. On the bad side; businesses closed, people lost jobs, families were broken, education stagnated and the economy crumbled.

Like they say, in every challenge, there is always an opportunity. The pandemic, especially the lockdown, sharpened people’s minds to pave way for creativity, innovation and enterprise. Such terms as ‘working from home’, ‘new normal’ and ‘online trade’ became common and are now being put to good use.

For example, it was during the lockdown that Felix Balitumye realized the need to digitally empower women entrepreneurs whose businesses were on the rocks. Together with his team at Computing Palace Technologies, Balitumye created a digital e-commerce platform and named it Her Duuka where women would register their businesses and connect to customers digitally.

“The 2020 lockdown mostly affected women because they dominate the small retail businesses. We realized that there is need to empower them to stay afloat. Many had closed shops and their stock was just wasting away,” says Balitumye.

On the other hand, he says, people were all stuck at home but in great need of supplies, thus the need to connect suppliers to consumers. Her Duuka is a convenient online platform where one just needs to visit www.herduuka.com and register their business with specific product details, prices, location and contacts. Supplies range from home appliances, beauty, machinery, beverages, to foods and furniture.

“Our role is to register suppliers. All things on Her Duuka are owned by different people with independent businesses. If a person wants to buy, they go straight to Her Duuka and tap on the product and they are prompted to put details of where they want it delivered, payment mode, etc, and submit,” he says, noting that clients can pay using mobile money, cash on delivery or bank transfers.

Balitumye says this digital product has been a revelation to many women who had lost hope following the 2020 lockdown. To date, more than 500 businesses have registered on Her Duuka.

Because most women entreprenuers are either illiterate or semi-literate, Balitumye says that all entrants are taken through digital literacy trainings to ensure that they can ably use the platform.

“We then create a portal for every supplier which helps them manage daily transactions to track income and expenditure. In other words, it has an inbuilt financial management platform to help empower women in financial inclusion,” he says.

While they primarily enroll people with conventional businesses, Balitumye says they are now looking into incorporating people without physical shops or workshops. For instance, there are some students in hostels and even housewives who would want to register and sell their merchandise and make money.

“Even men are asking to join the platform but, for now, we want to maintain the brand, making sure that women are taking the front lead,” Balitumye says.

There is no business without challenges. Balitumye says they still face resistance from some people with a negative attitude towards e-commerce platforms because some have been previously duped by scammers.

“The other problem is financial empowerment… these businesses take long to make profits. So, you have to keep investing. It needs a lot of resilience…and massive investment,” he said before applauding the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for the massive awareness and advocacy for FinTechs.

40-Days 40-FinTechs.

Her Duuka is the tenth participant in the 2022 40-Days 40-Fintechs initiative.

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

Our Reporter.

When Uganda was put into a total lockdown in March 2020 due to the outbreak of Covid-19, my stylist’s hair salon came to a grand halt. She was forced to close business six months later because she could not afford to pay the rent arrears demanded by her landlord despite the fact that the salon was not operating for that entire period.

But my hair stylist’s predicament would soon become a blessing in disguise as I came up with a digital solution that would save her and many more. Belle Beauty Uganda is the first digital platform that connects beauty service providers to clients.

According to Alice Sharon Namugerwa, Belle Beauty’s founder and team lead, this platform acts like a middle-man that connects clients to service providers in the beauty industry.

“We realized that if you do hair styling, nails, make-up and are sure of what you do, you just need a platform that connects you to customers, just like Uber connects drivers and passengers,” she says.

“When I talked to Namale (my hair stylist), I realized that she was not alone. There are many people like her who are single mothers trying to fend for their children but their businesses were affected by Covid-19. How were they surviving? So, I wanted to come up with a solution that could give women in the informal sector a place where they could work. ”

She adds that this application is therefore, women-centric, with the view that women are actually the backbone of the economy without noticing that they are.

To get services, one just needs to download the application or visit the Belle Beauty website and make orders.

On the side of service providers, Namugerwa notes that they first conduct due diligence on all applicants before onboarding them.

“They are required to provide certain documents and they sign contracts and we train them. We do not set prices for service providers….we just provide a rating system,” she says.

HOW IT WORKS

After downloading the application, the customer can make an order and the app will show the service providers that are in close proximity. The client makes a choice and pays using mobile money.

“The order always has specifics of what the client wants and where they want it to be done. If the customer wants the service urgently and the selected provider cannot meet the timelines, we are able to go in the system and reallocate the deal to another available provider. The client has to get the service at the time they want,” Namugerwa says.

After a service is completed, then the service provider is paid electronically by Belle Beauty in less than 24 hours. Namugerwa adds that they are now planning on creating a beauty hub where all service providers who do not have physical salons/workstations can converge and work.

“We will give them a chance where you don’t have to have a saloon. You just come with your client, as long as they have booked through Belle
Beauty and work on them from there. This will eliminate the extra cost of running a business on their part as women,” she says.

They also plan on helping women come up with saving schemes and investment plans.

Namugerwa appreciates the chance offered by the 40 days 40
FinTechs initiative to showcase tech startups because such opportunities offer visibility and exposure.

“If you are a startup, everything costs money. So, we appreciate HiPipo for giving us a chance to showcase our product for free… It also highlights the ecosystem of the FinTech space. You get to learn from other FinTechs and E-Commerce players and what they are offering,” she says.

Belle Beauty is the 8^th participant in the 2022 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.

Now in its third edition, #40Days40FinTechs has quickly grown into one of the world’s premier showcase events for the innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space. That is surely going to remain the case, in large part due to the inspiration and collaboration that our partners Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies generate, but mostly because of the continuing generous support of the Gates Foundation.

Digital Innovators and FinTechs around East Africa should be more eager to embrace 40 Days 40 FinTechs as Season three covers physical destinations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products & Services and also share their ideas on how more of us, especially those unserved and underserved by the present financial systems, can be brought into the fold.

The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.

According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, this year’s edition will cement achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs have been transformed – but also build on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond. “As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” Kawooya said.

As part of our continuous efforts to not only improve the quality and variety of digital financial services, with a special emphasis on those that cater for the unbanked and underserved, but also to ensure that the delivery of these services offers rewards to the innovators, HiPipo sought to build on the gains made from the 2^nd Women-in-FinTech Hackathon & Summit. And this we have successfully done by engaging the Hackathon’s top teams in the inaugural Women-in-FinTech Incubator. 

The essence of the Incubator is to empower the innovators with entrepreneurial and operational skills to complement their already formidable technical acumen. Thus, over the course of 90 days, the Incubator participants have been part of multiple online sessions and face-to-face group consultations, with even a cocktail thrown in for good measure. The facilitators, who included HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya and Ideation Corner Founder Damali Ssali, covered a vast range of topics to ready the participants for the business journey ahead. Core to the Incubator was to create linkages between the Level One Project principles and how they can be the firm foundation on which a successful FinTech vehicle is built.

We at HiPipo are glad that March 8^th, the International Women’s Day, has served up a fantastic opportunity. In conjunction with the Ideation Corner, we intend to also use that day as the conclusion of the Incubator. It was Damali Ssali, who recently ascended to the Ambassadorial role for Uganda at the United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organisation (WEDO), and is now also an Advisory Board Member of the Africa Continental Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who helped us shape the idea.

It is greatly symbolic for all of us that the day set aside to remind all that women must be given the opportunities to fulfill their potential, that all forms of discrimination and sexism that have been placed in their path need to end, and that the world will only truly bridge its development gaps if women are fully brought into the innovation space, syncs perfectly with what the Women-in-FinTech Hackathon & Summit in particular and indeed the HiPipo Include Everyone program in general, stands for- to break all biases that hinder the acquisition and adoption of life changing digital financial technology.

And to all those that have successfully taken part, we can assure you that this is just the beginning. HiPipo will continue to be there for you as you set forth to conquer the world with your innovations. Our promise of service is the least you deserve for choosing to make the world a better place through the power of digital financial technology. So handing you your certificates on March 8^th is just another landmark in our shared journey. Congratulations, dear friends!

Arthur expounded on what he referred to the ‘values desirable as social beings’. He explained these as the values that are common and constant to every human being, regardless of their background or status. These include integrity, respect, loyalty and responsibility. They work as uniting factors for any team and/or organisation. In fact, it is nigh impossible for productive working relationships to be built without them inculcated into a team.

Emmanuel Kintu continued on the Fundamentals of Photography, detailing what camera modes there are (automatic and manual), and also touched on speed and aperture priority. He alerted the participants to the fact that henceforth they will need to take time to ‘plan’ for what kind of image/photo they want, especially as they communicate about their products/services. Will it look better in black & white? Should the background be blurry in order for the focus to be on the subject in the foreground? Such are the questions they needed to get used to asking themselves.

Steven Kimuli brought in the aspect of a mood board: it being a collection of textures, images and text related to your company, and thus being essential to the creative process so that efforts directed towards design are not haphazard, and are indeed aligned with your desired creative direction. He also gave pointers on what to look out for in order to hire the right team for a design job, alerting all to the fact that design has its own specialisations, and knowing who to approach reduces on the portfolios you would end up sifting through.

For Innocent Kawooya, the Tiered KYC angle he tackled today was to explain how The Level One Project advises financial players to be innovative and flexible about gathering KYC data. The process should not be overly complicated for the targets i.e. the onus is on the innovators to find fitting ways to onboard those they are interested in, ensuring at the very least they now have a transactional account. He also contributed to the values discussion, as part of a response to a participant who talked of an unfortunate time when she went unpaid for services she had provided. His warning to the participants was for them to endeavour to pay their debts, warning of instances to come when the temptation might come to delay a payment instead settling it immediately.

Emmanuel Kintu rounded off his talk on digital camera settings, touching on the aspects of exposure, shutter speed, aperture diameter and ISO (International Standards Organisation). His presentation, as usual, was furnished with a variety of images to illustrate what he was explaining.

Arthur talked about four categories of value: personal, spiritual, family and career. He again stressed how all are interlinked, and should not be developed independent of each other.

Steven Kimuli’s discussion this time round looked at the things a company (or even an individual) needs to do in regards to branding in order to stand out against competitors. This includes one stepping out of their own space and concentrating on what they are doing, and taking time to get to know both the key players and influencers in their industry.

Innocent Kawooya introduced Tiered KYC as the week’s Principle to concentrate on. He thus highlighted the importance of the innovators understanding their target and/or market. This they should do to the best of their ability, and know that it is a never-ending process to which a fair bit of resources should always be readily dedicated.

The aspect of the Social Venture Business Model George discussed today was the value proposition. He described how it is 2-way: on one hand there’s the promise by the service provider to the client that what the former puts forth will be of value. And on the client’s side there is the belief that this value will be delivered, experienced and/or acquired. This’ important for the innovators, for it will always be necessary for them to understand what their clients need, and thus what is expected of them to deliver. Or provide value, you could say.

Continuing on mass communication, Francis defined and discussed three types of it: journalism, advertising and public relations. He illustrated the differences between the three, specifically how all might target the same individuals, but are expected to elicit different reactions.

Emma started his talks on the Fundamentals of Photography, first by getting the opinions of those in attendance on what they believe photography to be. Then in his own explanation, Emma stressed how light is central to the concept of photography. He next touched on what exposure is.

Referring to all that had been spoken, Innocent illustrated how HiPipo’s own initiatives and ventures, including 40 Days 40 FinTechs, the very Women-in-FinTech Hackathon the participants had been involved in, and indeed the ongoing Incubator itself, were run along many of the principles of the Social Venture Business Model. Proper execution of these initiatives needed careful application of various types of mass communication. And, of course, documentation was nothing without photography executed in a manner both skillful and timely.

Consideration of the above is what has helped HiPipo make tremendous headway in advocating for and promoting Same Day Settlement, and indeed The Level One Project in general. They should thus also matter to the participants as they set off on their entrepreneurial journey.

Kasakya George, who you can now call the ‘Social Venture Business Model Canvas Guy’, further defined the model, this time introducing and defining what a social good is, and how the budding entrepreneurs have to take time to look at their purpose for the business and decide whether it is, well, fit for purpose. A clear realisation on how they hope to help their clients might necessitate a ‘system change’, a new model that calls for a more altruistic approach in order to bring onboard those that need the service the most.

Francis introduced the concept of mass communication, defining it and illustrating how it goes hand in hand with mass media. He also touched on two key theories of mass communication (magic bullet and agenda-setting), and asked the participants to take time to understand how they and their products and services fit into the mass communication and mass media ecosystem.

Arthur further expounded on how important values are to the worker and innovator. As one goes through personal growth, there comes a time where they seamlessly transfer that growth, with the values therein included, into the products they create and the organisations they work for. Needless to say, better people make better products, and are better attuned to the needs of those they are supposed to serve.

Innocent Kawooya, CEO – HiPipo concluded the session by urging the participants to remember that all that was being shared has to be aligned with the principle of Same Day Settlement. How they set up as a business, how they communicate, and the values they cherish as an enterprise need to be in service to this principle, and indeed all the others, as will be discussed in time.