All sectors have their unique challenges. For schools, collecting school fees is a huge problem as many parents can’t pay the school fees promptly. For those in Agriculture, mainly smallholder farmers, access to quality input is a huge pain point while for small-scale traders, access to merchant stock is almost impossible without cash.
Nonetheless, the increasing roll-out and fast adoption of financial technology solutions is addressing most of these issues with many unserved and underserved people now able to access these much-needed services and products on credit.
One of the financial technology start-ups that have come to address issues faced by farmers, parents, and small-scale traders is PesaJet.
“We are a financial technology solution targeting the underserved communities. These are communities that are unable to access loans from mainstream banking solutions. We focus on three main themes. Education where we are giving school fees to school-going children. Merchant stock for small and medium-scale businesses looking for stock. We also serve smallholder farmers who we give small Agriculture loans,” Angella Kansemiire, the PesaJet Product Manager said.
She added: “For Education, we onboard schools and [help willing parents to] pay the school fees directly to the schools. The parents then pay us back in installments. So far, we have onboarded over 50 schools and serving about 500 happy parents and pupils. Our proposition for Agriculture involves providing farmers with goods and services on credit. When we are offering the funds, we offer them through the suppliers we work with and the suppliers deliver these to the farmers.
The farmers then pay back [in installments]. We have so far onboarded around 2,000 farmers and some 500 have accessed the service. Lastly, for small-scale traders, we help them get stock for their businesses. We already have five wholesalers who we have business agreements with; so, when a trader makes an order, we pay the wholesaler and the goods are delivered. The trader then pays us.”
Kansemiire noted that PesaJet services are accessible through a mobile APP downloadable on Android devices for now. She highlighted that after registration, a customer submits basic KYC (Know Your Customer) and two references after which one is able s/he is eligible to apply for between UGX 50,000 and Shs 200,000, which goes on growing depending on someone’s repayment behavior and credit history that is built automatically depending on one’s usage of the APP.
PesaJet has featured on Day 8 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
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 and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
“We are happy to kick off Season Five of 40 Days 40 FinTechs. Last year, we focused on end-user experiences, and this year, we will focus on the innovativeness of the FinTechs. We are going to have candid discussions with FinTechs about their innovations and latest upgrades and what impact they envision these products and services and upgrades will have on their customers,” Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo Chief Executive Officer noted.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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