Showbizuganda

Tag: HiPo

  • Kray Microfinance offers convenient digital loan

    Kray Microfinance offers convenient digital loan

    #40Days40FinTechs Season 4 Day 11

    We cannot overemphasize the power of digital media. Whether your interest is in sports, fashion, politics, or business, there is something for you in the digital marketplace.

    So, when Mayimuna Nalumu started her business in beddings, she utilized digital marketing to supplement her physical shop in Kinawataka. And when things got tough following the Covid-19 pandemic, she still relied on social media for possible financial remedies.

    “I was checking social media [for money lenders] and I landed on Kray Microfinance. I downloaded their App and filled in my credentials. An agent was sent to me and he visited my business. They gave me my first loan which lasted four months. I have been getting other loans – for three years now,” she says.

    Now, that is convenience!
    ‘Sincerely they have helped me grow my business and I have even expanded and started a mobile money business on top of the beddings,’ she says, only praying that the App be translated to a language she understands better – Luganda.

    Kray Microfinance is a digital financial services company that started as a money lending company in 2012 before it realized that digital microfinance is the real deal.

    ‘We designed and developed a mobile application that enables people to access fast, convenient, and reliable credit. Someone simply needs to go to the Google Play Store and download our App” says Raymond Peter Kiwanuka, founder and managing director of Kray Microfinance.

    He says that once you download the App, one of Kray’s agents will contact you and pick up preliminary know-your-customer (KYC) information and then you will be passed for receiving loans.
    “For those without smartphones, we developed a USSD where you can access credit,’ Kiwanuka says.

    Kiwanuka adds that their motivation ten years ago was to be able to provide credit to anyone available. As they went deeper into operation, they realized that there are quite several people who need credit and microfinance services and were unable to access the services. The reasons they gave were that access to banks and lenders was limited on top of bottlenecks in terms of the collateral required and documentation.

    ‘We came in to solve this problem by not requiring much collateral and someone does not need to come to our offices to access credit. To access the credit, the only thing required is your national ID and yourself,’ he says.

    With this convenience, at least 7,800 people have taken more than 18,000 loans over time.
    “Most of the transactions are by women. They are the most vulnerable when it comes to access to financial services,” he says.

    Kray Microfinance, regulated by the Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority, does not work alone. They have several third-party players such as MTN and Airtel who help in supporting the real-time settlement of transactions.

    ‘For instance, if someone wants to withdraw money, it does not take more than five minutes to get it on their mobile money accounts. If it is a deposit, it is still the same thing because the platform is up and running 24/7,” he says.

    Hope against skepticism
    Kiwanuka says some of the challenges faced by digital financial services providers is slow adoption, fraud, and illiteracy.

    He is however optimistic that these can be handled through engagements such as the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative by HiPipo.
    ‘The 40 Days 40 FinTechs is a platform that every digital financial provider should join because it has created awareness in the digital space, not only in Uganda but regionally. This is a platform where you meet like-minded people. If you want to grow, you must share with people to appreciate your product,” he says.

    Kray Microfinance is the 11th participant in Season Four of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative that seeks to highlight the impact of FinTechs in the lives of under-served populations.

    Ran by HiPipo, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has over the past three years helped more than 100 participating FinTechs benefit from useful Financial Inclusion 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.

    ‘This time we are showing the real impact of these FinTechs. Kray Microfinance is one of the participants touching on the issue of cheap and fast credit. Economies can grow faster if the low-income users can easily access credit,” said HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, before sending his appreciation to the initiative’s partners including Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. #LevelOneProject HiPipo Innocent Kawooya

  • Her Duuka is helping over 500 women businesses survive Covid-19 hangover

    Her Duuka is helping over 500 women businesses survive Covid-19 hangover

    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 entrepreneurs 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.