HiPipo Money

Our Reporter.

While Europe, America and Asia, the main trading partners with Africa are increasingly getting cashless, over 90 per cent of the population in Africa still adores cash.

This not only renders the continent uncompetitive but has also played a great part in promoting money laundering on the continent.

According to Brookings, illicit financial flows from Africa between 1980 and 2018, were estimated at about USD 1.3 trillion ( UGX4,827 trillion), which is 50 times Uganda’s GDP. This is detrimental to the continent’s financial and economic development.

However, in a bid to play a role in facilitating a shift from cash to cashless, several players have come up. One of these is Xente Limited, a Financial Technology (FinTech) company that delivers traditional financial services in a technical manner, using technology.

Established in 2017 by Allan Rwakatungu and his co-founders, the firm connects African businesses and consumers to the digital global economy.

According to the company’s chief marketing and communications officer, Lyn Tukei, the FinTech created a platform that handles all sorts of non-cash payments ranging from mobile money to card payments such as Visa and MasterCard to pay for goods and services whereever in the world and pay utility bills.

The Xente App can also be used to get loans, book tickets, buy airtime as well as doing online sales of goods and services.

The company boasts of over 50,000 subscribers across the continent. However, the company targets to connect 100 million African people and 50,000 African businesses to the global digital economy over the next 10 years. This, she believes will enable them to help buyers and sellers upgrade to the digital financial economy.

According to Tukei, Xente seeks to help Africa emerge from the old economy where systems are inefficient, informal and people using cash, to seamlessly join the new digital economy of using cashless options to enable the continent compete favourably.

They company also targets to onboard 1,500 Micro and Medium Sized Enterprise (MMEs) merchants onto the Xente platform, especially Ugandan owned businesses. Special focus will be paid to women and youth lead enterprises.

Infrastructure key

According to Tukei, this will be done through the provision of adequate technology infrastructure that connects consumers, businesses and sellers to get to the digital platforms. Using the App also enables users to get access to credit, savings and insurance.

The company also hopes to enhance their financial services value proposition with features like Release payment on Delivery, Instant settlement, Forex payments or buyers from foreign countries and insurance in case of damage or non-delivery. This will help address the trust challenges always faced in the digital economy.

Xente, which is among the firms participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative, also intends to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative by enabling trade between customers and merchants in Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

The 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

It seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya commended Xente for the innovation.

“We believe in the works of digital transformation and looking at the numbers you envision to reach, it is a big target but it is achievable because time has come for financial inclusion to become the internet,” Kawooya said.

He added: “We are now on the journey of building the internet of money, which is going to change everything. Digital is now more value additional; it is no longer about sharing pictures. Facebook is now opening up shops and making sure that everyone sells what they have.”

Kawooya said the 40-days-40-FinTechs is an innovative initiative, saying that it is the first time it is happening anywhere in the world.

“We are doing this with passion because we believe that when each one of you plays a role in the ecosystem, then we will be able to transform millions of lives.

“We are happy to celebrate financial inclusion because whenever we have such discussions, we are sure we are helping the world get closer to achieving full financial inclusion,” he said.

Our Reporter.

With huge traffic congestion in most African cities, the easiest way for one to travel from one point to another is by using a motorcycle, commonly known as Boda Boda in Uganda.

Although this is the fastest means of transport that beats any manner of traffic jam, the only challenge comes with safety, as most Boda Boda cyclists ride recklessly.

However, while some people chose to just lament about the reckless habits of the Boda Boda riders, Ricky Thomson Rapa, a school dropout, saw a huge opportunity.

The loss of his close friend in a Boda Boda accident in 2012, triggered his mind and he started advocating for road safety for Boda-Boda riders and users, by encouraging them to wear helmets.

Although he had an idea of professionalizing Boda Boda riding, especially around Kampala, it did not come to fruition until late 2014 when he teamed up Maxime Dieudonne and Alastair Sussock.

This saw the birth of SafeBoda Uganda, a community of entrepreneurs and Boda Boda riders working together to improve professional standards across the urban transportation industry in Africa.

The company deploys technology to connect with its customers through an Application (app) which users use to hail a Boda Boda using their smartphones, thus ensuring safe access to mobility.

According to Nicholas Kamanzi, the Head of payment at SafeBoda, the company currently has over 18,000 professionally trained riders in Kampala, serves over 500,000 customers in Kampala, Uganda and increasingly continues to innovate to meet its customers’ changing tastes.

In a space of five years, it has promoted safe and professional standards in the transportation industry and has encouraged a network of riders who are responsible, foresighted, entrepreneurial and well clued on customer care.

This has increased safety on the roads, improved the livelihoods of many boda-boda riders through aspects of microcredit and micro insurance and also made transport around the city easier, comfortable and more reliable.

Expansion

In addition to Uganda, the company has scaled to other parts of Africa including Mombasa and Nairobi (Kenya), and Ibadan (Nigeria) with the aim of improving the transportation industry for both riders and passengers by increasing the number of safe trips taken per day and by making travel around the cities convenient and stress-free.

In 2017, the company launched a SafeBoda wallet to allow passengers plan their trips better by getting money from their mobile money accounts into their SafeBoda wallet for easy settlement of the fares.

For convenience, Kamanzi said that the company expanded the avenues through which customers would load their wallets by allowing customers to request any Safe Boda rider randomly found on the road to deposit for them on the wallet. Additionally, customers can also use merchants in the ecosystem to deposit in the wallet.

Other products

In addition to paying for trips, SafeBoda also allows customers to use money in their wallets to buy airtime from the different networks, buy food from the different restaurants and sharing with friends, among others

It also partnered with banks to allow SafeBoda riders to save for their future. Under this, a rider agrees to the amount that should be taken off for a specific developmental target, then retrieved after a given period. This is on top of the other financial services like loans rendered to the riders. SafeBoda has a tier IV license that allows them to give loans to its riders.

SafeBoda also collaborated with a third-party asset provider to allow its riders access assets on loans like motorcycles and life insurances service.

According to Kamanzi this financial technology advancement has improved the lives of the riders.

40-days-40-FinTechs initiative

Safe Boda is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiatives, organised by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya alluded to how the FinTech landscape in Uganda has grown over the last five years, noting that there are currently over 67 FinTechs in the country today, doing amazing work.

“We are here because we believe in the work of financial technology and the players that have been doing the donkeywork to make sure there is better service provision, affordability, accessibility and transparency and services becoming more secure each day,” he said.

He noted that among the tools that have been used to bridge a gap, especially in value addition services, is technology, which is a carrier of payment gateways that ensure that everyone can be able to pay off their wallet.

Kawooya added that HIPipo is kin at promoting secure digital financial services, given their virtual role in promoting financial inclusion.

“We believe that one of the most important thing to do is to ensure that people can access financial services because an economy that includes everyone benefits everyone,” he said.

Our Reporter.

When RG-Consult started working on the Nakasero Market portal that would allow people to order for groceries from the market and have them delivered to their residences, little did they know that it would become popular in a short time.

However, the lockdown that followed the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda, forcing the government to institute control measures to constrain its spread, was a blessing in disguise for the East African 360 creative, production, experiential marketing, events management and consulting company.

While many business people sulked over the lockdown, RG-Consult was smiling; it was an opportunity to popularize their new platform.

It was an opportunity to fast-track the development of its Nakasero Market portal, an online platform that allows people to buy groceries from the comfort of their homes and have them delivered to them conveniently; especially that government had banned both private and public means of transport.

Bridgette Nisha Ampurira, the RG Consults Team Manager said that while they had planned the App and were already working on the portal, COVID-19 accelerated the development and introduction onto the market.

“This product became much more important and relevant because of the current situation we are in. The website www.nakaseromarket.ug is receiving a lot of traffic. Our App is ready and will be rolled out soon,” Ampurira said.

People ordering groceries can pay through mobile money, Visa Card or cash on delivery. The company has a fleet of boda bodas which do the home deliveries.

Following the success of the Nakasero Market portal, Ampurira said the company has also secured other domains for popular traditional markets, as part of its bigger expansion plan.

The company, which is among the Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) taking part in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative, also offers other products including the sell of tickets for different events, online.

The company has also ventured into organizing online concerts, where people pay for a show and they are provided with a link through which they can access and watch the show live.

It is registered in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya said the 40 days 40 fintechs initiative seeks to support innovative FinTechs to ensure that they create more jobs and ensure that more people are financially included.

He, however, expressed concern that despite the technology sector playing critical role in scaling financial inclusion over the years, the sector has not been given sufficient attention.

“For instance, if a bank today has 150,000 mobile wallets, they praise the bank first before they talk about the person that created the technology.

“For 15 years, HiPipo has been advocating for digital transformation, starting with Music. We wanted to show that you can use technology to change so many lives. About 10 years ago, we took it to financial inclusion; we wanted to ensure that we streamline and get people on board. Our input has played a great part in the amazing growth of mobile financial services you see today,” Kawooya said.

Kawooya said that HiPipo will ensure that FinTechs like RG-Consults are equipped with emerging technologies such as Mojaloop – a financial technology software that will help them design interoperable payments solutions to enable them cut costs and also serve a wider market, using a shared payment platform.

“Mojaloop will help you create a financial eco-system that can communicate easily with others platforms to enable you supply products anywhere and get payments seamlessly,” he said.

The 40-days-40 FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne program, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

It seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

Kawooya pledged to offer free consultancy for the participating Fintechs that could be having technological challenges.

Our Reporter.

The payment industry is increasingly experiencing a high level of disruption that is reshaping the payments space, thanks to a surge of new technology-driven processes.

Operated by Financial Technology Companies (FinTech), the digital applications are enabling users to take payments to the next level in terms of speed, efficiency and convenience.

And one firm that has greatly contributed to this disruption in Uganda is Craft Silicon, a Kenyan headquartered FinTech that provides customized banking solutions for the financial sector across the world.

Craft Silicon was founded in 2000 when Kamal Budhabhatti developed an application to help manage expenses. It was then adopted by Micro Finance institutions before it later evolved into a core banking system dubbed the Bankers Realm in a space of two years.

Over the years, the FinTech has risen to become a market leader owing its success to the innovativeness.

It has over 35 commercial banks and 150 Micro Finance institutions on its core banking and core Micro Finance products, respectively.

According to the firm’s Uganda team leader John Baptist Ochieng, the FinTech is inspired by the desire to innovate so as to make financial products available and accessible to the target audiences easily and conveniently.

In addition to the core banking system, the firm is also a key player in the mobile banking; it has innovated mobile banking platforms for over 150 banking customers, connected to over 14 African countries. According to Ochieng, the company handles over 1.6 million transactions daily.

Under the mobile banking platform, one is able to pull money from their bank account into the mobile money wallet and vice versa.

It also facilitates bill payments for utility companies such as National Water and Sewerage Corporation and Umeme, buying airtime and loan access via mobile phones.

“As need arises every day for financial inclusion, we innovate around that to see that everyone can access their money or pay bills, loans and the like,” Ochieng said.

Other products are self-account opening for connected banks, agency banking, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for SMEs, an e-voucher system for farmers being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries and a payment gateway for the  National Information Technology Authority that allows interoperability for all government ministries, departments and agencies.

It is also working on another product that targets merchants’ payment, where one can pull money from bank account and pay directly for goods and services.

“We are committed to growing financial inclusion in the country and Africa as a whole,” Ochieng said.

Efforts.

Different stakeholders including the government and the private sector are playing a critical role to ensure that they reduce the number of people who are still financially excluded.

According to the 2018 FinScope survey, financial inclusion in Uganda increased to 78%, driven mainly by mobile money services.

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya said that technology in Africa is a prime sector that everyone wants to be a part of and that it is playing a critical role in transforming millions of lives through financial inclusion.

He commended Craft Silicon for a great team of energetic youth, which he said are doing everything it takes to ensure that the world achieves full financial inclusion.

“We are truly excited to engage with Craft Silicon in the great series of 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative because it is only right that we shine a spotlight on a company that has played a tremendous role is breaking down digital barriers and bringing millions of people on the continent into the digital transactional space,” he said.

Craft Silicon is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs initiatives organised by HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using latest technology such the Mojaloop open source software.

By Our Writer

The Ugandan economy is heavily weighted in international trade, especially as an importer, mainly from China.

Despite this, traders were finding challenges with cross-border payments as they involved multiple parties, currencies, regulations and risks.

However, in a bid to make international payment more accessible and efficient to businesses, Ugmart, a Financial Technology Company (FinTech) has come in to bridge the gap.

The company focuses on providing secure and seamless electronic payment solutions for both small and medium enterprises and large enterprises, delivering reliable merchant services that allow businesses to transact seamlessly.

The company provides financial technology that includes payment solutions along with mobile and web application development. These range from prepaid credit cards, Mobile Point-Of-Sale (POS) to e-wallet payments.

The e-wallet product for instance is a merchant product that allows one to put money in the wallet and be able to transact from anywhere in the world.

According to Patrick Kizito, the Ugmart chief executive officer, the wallet offers an easy way to move money around the round, ensures safety of one’s funds, eliminates exchange rate risks and offers flexibility.

Ugmart works with a number of electronic money issuers including Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay, among others.

Additionally, the company offers a WebPay product that allows businesses to receive money from a different electronic money service provider from across the world and be able to push the money onto a bank account, in that country’s local currency.

This product is mainly for businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants and schools, among others.

Further, UGMart has a wallet product for schools that enables parents and pupils to manage pocket money effectively. The product enables parents to deposit their kids’ pocket money on an account which is accessible at the school through a POS machine and a unique smart card for each student.

Ugmart currently has over 200,000 users collectively, according to Kizito.

Ugmart is among the FinTechs participating in the 40-days-40-FinTechs project, an initiative organised by HiPipo under its Include EveryOne programme, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

The HiPipo CEO – Innocent Kawooya said: “I am excited to hear that Ugmart is helping people to trade across the seas, especially with China using a wallet that is dedicated to ensure that their money is safe and accessible wherever they are.”

He added: “The fact that you are already onboarding a number of service providers – union, visa, mastercard, mobile financial services, you are already thinking of making sure that everyone is included.”

He noted that as a people-centric brand, HiPipo is mindful and would like to ensure that it supports FinTechs which are using technology to solves the challenges facing Africa so as to play a role in the fight against poverty.

The 40-days-40-FinTechs initiative is expected to climax with the FinTechs Landscape Exhibition on July 16-17, 2020.

Kawooya noted that while the initiative seeks to shine a light on prime stories that are changing millions of lives across Africa, it will also validate the fact that Africans do not just copying technology from developed countries, but rather innovating solutions that speak to the challenges facing Africans.

“The financial technology that the western world is thinking about is meant to solve challenges of the future, may be 20 years from now but not the current challenges facing Africa. It is Africans that are innovating the exact solutions that we need now,” Kawooya said.

Our Reporter.

Making financial services available to more people by lowering costs and barriers to access is increasingly becoming a key focus area for Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) that seek to ensure financial inclusion for all.

Their transformative power owes to their ability to serve the once financially excluded people, using technology to facilitate mobile payments, provide loans, bill payments and money transfers, among others.

One of the entities with potential of becoming prominent in that space is Enabling Finance, a Najjera-based money lending finance company providing affordable and easier financial services to the public.

The firm started in 2014, offering personal secured loans to university students before venturing into short-term market loans.

However, this saw the company suffer a major setback, as most borrowers did not repay the loans, pushing the company in liquidity challenges.

This, however, did not water down their spirit as they bounced back in 2017 with an innovative solution dubbed FINABLR, tier IV money lending network application that connects diligent borrowers to professional moneylenders under a friendly and enabling environment.

This product, according to Luke Yyeyo, Enabling Finance founder and chief executive officer, has proved to be a game changer to both individuals and businesses that want easy access to loans.

“As we were working to grow our portfolio in 2017, we realised that technology was the solution to lending issues faced in the past and that is when we developed FINABLR,” Yyeyo said.

FINABLR, according to Yyeyo, is flexible, allows private individual lenders to partner with the company since the country’s law does not allow unregistered lenders to get involved in the lending business and any one can apply for a loan.

Additionally, it prepares clients that could be ineligible for the current loan for future financial acceptance, enables lenders to fill in gaps for other lenders that cannot meet their professional take and also offers affordable interest rates to borrowers.

The company’s goal is to provide refined financial services using state of the art technology and methods, delivered through world-class customer care so as to economically empower the population.

To apply for a loan, one is on boarded on the FINABLR application through a website; one submits the loan application on the app, indicating the purpose for which they want the funds.

Enabling Finance is one of the financial players taking part in the 40-days-40-FinTechs project, an initiative of HiPipo, in partnership with Crosslake Tech, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation.

The initiative seeks to enable FinTechs to innovate solutions that facilitate cross-network financial transactions at minimal risks to enhance access to financial services.

40 days-40-FinTechs project

Running for 40 days, the project will see the participating 40 FinTechs acquire interoperable development skills to improve access to financial services, using the Mojaloop open source software.

“We are pleased to be part of the 40-days-40-FinTechs project. As a young company, such engagements help us improve our product and platforms. We are able to learn best FinTech practices,” Yyeyo said.

He added: “We have had a great discussion about Mojaloop and interoperability; our developers have their work cut out. New technologies are available. It is up to us to make good use of them. I thank HiPipo for organizing this.”

The HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya applauded Enabling Finance for democratizing money lending, saying that it creates an ecosystem that allows anyone to borrow and lend freely, which will in turn result in a democratic network that will change the narrative, especially about moneylenders as being shrewd people.

“We are talking about an economy that includes everyone; so we are talking about solutions that are enabling the last man at the bottom of the pyramid to access financial services,” Kawooya said.

He added: “We are speaking to how we can collaborate with technology providers and cut your costs and then have interoperable solutions to make it easy for lending from anywhere using technology. It is not something that can be done in one day because it is a long journey but as long you plan ahead of time, you get there.”