HiPipo Money

By Our writer

Many businesses always find themselves entangled in non-core business functions and end up giving little time to core operations, which affects their operations.

Payments are one of those non-core operations that businesses, especially the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) tend to spend a lot of time on.

To help them manage their daily payments needs without interrupting their core business operations, however, Kanzu Code, a software development company, came up with an aggregation solution dubbed Kanzu Money to enable MSMEs conveniently, effectively and securely make bulk payments.

According to the Kanzu Code Software Engineer Patricia Atim, the solution allows businesses make bulk payments to their employees, suppliers and vendors, among others, in a single click.

The system uses a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file where all the details including particulars to the people to be paid and the respective amounts, are input and then uploaded onto the web-based Application (App) system to effect the payments, accordingly.

The solution is an interoperable as it uses the Mojaloop software. This means that payments can be effected from the system to any mobile money service provider or bank, effectively and at the same cost.

“This solution helps a small business owner that needs to make several payments yet the recipients are on different networks yet they have to pay via mobile money,” she explains.

She adds: “Imagine if you have 50 people to pay daily; making a single payment at a go to all those people is a lot of work. This means that you either have to carry the money with you to pay them or look for a money agent and ask them to pay one by one. The whole process is tiring and cumbersome.”

The solution not only eliminates the risk of carrying cash but also enables a business to make payments at once to all the people instead of having to pay each, one by one.

Kanzu Code also offers other solutions including custom digital solutions, online stores and Kanzu jobs, among others.

Having a bias towards women’s financial inclusion, Atim says that Kanzu Code plans to roll out a strategy to create initiatives that will be tailored specifically to encourage women to sign up.

She notes that four in 10 MSMEs are owned by women, yet most women are unhappy with the current FinTech solutions on market as they were not responsive to their needs.

Kanzu Code, which participated in the first ever Women in FinTech Hackathon last year, implements Real-Time payments and Same-Day settlements, which are among the financial inclusion principles.

They are among the firms participating in ongoing second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs programme, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Atim commends HiPipo for the programme, saying it has played a major role in publicity and raising awareness about the crucial role FinTechs play in the country.

While Uganda’s FinTech industry is steadily growing, Atim notes that there are a number of challenges including the prohibitive regulations and policies, high cost of lending and difficulty of attracting funding from investors.

The HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya, however, says that FinTech in Africa offers attractive opportunities and that investors are rightfully picking interest in the various startups offering a plethora of services, ranging from payments and lending, remittances and cross-border transfers, among others.

He explains that the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative 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.

Kanzu Code can be accessed on www.kanzucode.com

By Our writer 

It is one thing to develop a financial solution and another thing for that solution to be accepted in the market.

It is for that reason that Alpteq, an ICT Solutions a company that specialises in software development, decided to take a customer-centric approach in product development, to ensure that the financial solutions brought to the market address the target audiences’ needs.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Fred Musisi says that for any solution to be successful in the African market, it must be customer-centric, putting a customer in mind throughout the solution development process.

“Even before you start developing the solutions, you must have the customer in mind since a number of people do not use high end devices,” he says, adding that this explains why the firm introduced web-based products so as to include as many people as possible. 

He adds: “It is equally important to know the kind of customers you are serving because that is when you will be able to give products that are tailored for their needs.”

Established in 2019, Alpteq offers a range of high quality services in the development, delivery, and maintenance of software in Uganda including POS UG, Ease lend, UG Clinics and School novas.

Under the Ease Lend product, Alpteq has automated a number of women dominated SACCOs, including Self Sustainable Graduate SACCO and Mayenze Traders SACCO, among others.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced the country into two lockdowns so far, Musisi says that Alpteq was forced to revamp its School Novas solution to include an e-learning option to enable learners continue with their studies from home.

Prior to the pandemic, the School Novas product was strictly a management tool for schools.

“While in 2020 and 2021 operations have been largely affected by the pandemic, this period has given us an opportunity to innovate and find ways of serving the less attended to sectors,” Musisi notes.

To enhance financial inclusion, payment for e-learning is done through mobile money.

Additionally, Musisi says that the growing need for businesses to cut costs so as to survive in this pandemic that contracted business, forced Alpteq to rethink its POS UG solution to enable businesses prioritise expenditure to lower expenses. 

Musisi notes that through automation, businesses have been able to operate more efficiently and effectively.

Alpteq is participating in the ongoing second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

The initiative provides a platform for FinTechs and stakeholders in the digital and financial technology space to exhibit their products and share ideas.

Musisi applauded HiPipo for the initiative, saying it has given them market visibility.

Additionally, he notes that the initiative has exposed FinTechs to a number of helpful technologies such as Mojaloop, which have enabled them improve the kind of products and solutions they bring to market.

The HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya says that FinTech is the launchpad on which the promise of full global financial inclusion will be fulfilled.

“The 40-Days 40 FinTechs LevelOneProject shall show we have the innovators to take on the challenges,” he says.

Our writer.

Several people across the country have fallen victim to land evictions or have their pieces of land lying idle for lack of funds to develop them.

In a bid to solve this challenge especially in the Buganda region where such cases are rampant, Buladde Financial Services, a Cooperative Society, was started by the Buganda Land Board to help people improve their security of tenure on land.

According to John Mark Ernest Golooba, the Buladde Financial Services Manager, this was done through voluntary savings and access to affordable credit facilities to enable people secure the land and use it to develop themselves.

“If you have land with the right documentation, you can access money from financial institutions. You can also get partners to develop the land,” Golooba says.

The Cooperative is currently serving 3,650 customers in Kampala and Wakiso, with 58% of them being women.

Golooba notes that women are more interested in savings and accessing soft loans, given that most of them are involved in a number of trading activities.

Using savings and soft loans from Buladde, Golooba says that the women have also been able to expand their businesses.

While the Cooperative is able to serve its existing clients immediately, it still takes about a week for new clients as it still has to do manual background checks, which consumes time.

In a bid to serve its clients in a convenient and efficient manner, however, Buladde Financial Services set out to streamline service provision by embarking on a digitisation journey last year.

All client information has since been transferred onto the new system, according to Golooba.

 “All client information is in the system but we are now working on having them transact digitally so that they don’t have to come to office to transact,” Golooba notes.

Buladde Financial Services is among the firms participating in the ongoing second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Golooba commended the organizers for the initiative, which he says has widened their understanding of the financial services sector in relation to technology.

“It has helped us see why we need to digitize our services because it is for our own good. It will help us improve on efficiency in service provision and effect real-time settlement which can only be done when you are digital,” he notes.

He adds: “You find that we also have a challenge of people who come to borrow from us yet they have multiple loans from other institutions while others present forged documents for security. But I believe when we digitize, and solutions like Mojaloop are adopted to enable us access information in a pool, doing background search will be made easier to curb such issues.”

The HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya says the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative 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.

He explains that FinTechs have played a great role in financial inclusion across Africa, as the various products and services innovated by FinTech players are impacting thousands of people at the last mile.

Buladde Financial Services can be accessed on www.buladde.or.ug

By Our writer

It is estimated that at least 80 per cent of Ugandan farmers are smallholders. Despite their everyday challenges, they contribute the largest share of agricultural production.

To help them boost production and increase their incomes, Green Shares, a social enterprise that started operations in 2019, is leveraging technology to unlock their potential and have them financially included.

The firm’s director, Annet Nanyanzi, says the company provides a range of services to farmers to help improve production, productivity and incomes.

These range from market linkages, agronomy, saving and access to micro loans through partnerships to helping agro-processers find quality raw materials, among others.

Once the farmer takes their produce to the community agent, it is verified for quality and quantity, logged onto the Green Shares platform and payment is triggered and approved. Payment is then effected in real time using mobile money.

While some farmers don’t have access to phones and mobile money services, Nanyanzi says the platform has a feature that enables them access their money through their next of kin.

Green Shares mainly deals in the maize, soybeans and rice value chains. It currently operates in Luweero, Kiryandongo and Kasese districts.

To date, they have reached 180 farmers, earning Shs 30m, with the volume sourced from farmers estimated at 35 metric tones

Green Shares also provides a platform where investors can inject some money in the company’s Trading Fund for a return.

Apart from paying farmers using its e-platform on mobile money, the company leverages partnerships with micro finance companies in areas where it works to enable them access credit.

In Luwero for instance, it partnered with Micro Credit for Development and Transformation (MCDT) that provides loans mainly to women to enable them buy farm inputs and pay labour costs.

Nanyanzi, however, expresses concern that the small-sized farms that majority of farmers have reduce commercial viability and increase aggregation costs.

However, she notes that Green Shares is working on an intervention that will see it leverage farm leasing solutions for farmers.

“A number of landowners are in urban areas with chunks of land in the villages not being utilized. They can lease their land to the farmers through Green Shares for a return,” she says.

Digital farms

Nanyanzi says the company plans to leverage technology to launch digital farms, starting with Nwoya and Luweero districts, to enable people without land or time to invest in agriculture to own digital farms managed by Green Shares, to increase production and incomes.

“We believe everyone can participate in farming. There are people without time or land to farm but we believe this can be an investment vehicle for even those without farms to own digital farms and earn a return,” she says.

The investor will be able to choose a value chain of preference to invest in and a location with the GPS coordinates and timely updates on how the farm is performing.

The farms will also have crop insurance to de-risk losses that agriculture faces.

The company also plans to promote an integrated farming model, which enables farmers earn income all-year-round.

The farmers’ platform under development will enable them profile farmers, track their yield, income and costs of production to enable them devise appropriate interventions for higher production and incomes.

40-Days 40 FinTechs

Green Shares is among the firms participating in the ongoing 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Nanyanzi applauded HiPipo for the initiative, saying that it has provided a platform that enables the wider community to know more about innovations Ugandan entrepreneurs are engaged in.  She adds that it also provides a platform for FinTechs like Green Shares to sketch for potential partnerships, synergies with other FinTechs and funding opportunities.

The HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya says that FinTech is the launch pad on which the promise of full global financial inclusion will be fulfilled.

He adds that FinTech in Africa offers attractive opportunities and investors are rightfully picking interest in the various startups that are offering a plethora of services.

Green Shares can be accessed on www.egreenshares.com