After the second wave of Covid-19, Ugandan businesses and individuals are with no doubt in need of financial assistance since many of them lack security and other necessary requirements to access financial credit.
Over nine million Ugandans are using mobile banking accounts to acquire quick loans through MoKash, a money lending and savings platform hosted by MTN Uganda.
NCBA is outstandingly becoming the biggest bank in Uganda in terms of Account Holders with about 9.7 million MoKash accounts. This has helped customers to secure low-cost unsecured credit in the nearest time possible.
NCBA has worked with MTN to increase customer engagement aiming to improve recognition for the changes happening within the environment and adapt accordingly.
Anthony Ndegwa, the Chief Executive Officer NCBA said; “The partnership with MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited allows us to continuously extend financial services to millions of Ugandans through the mobile channel. It is a great partnership that is positively contributing to the deepening of the financial inclusion agenda in Uganda.”
He further said that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented both challenges and opportunities for economies and businesses with one of them being failure to repay loans.
“The increased focus on customer engagement has helped to maintain the momentum on customer repayments. Additionally, we provided some relief to customers during this period, as supported by the Bank of Uganda….to allow our customers deal with the new realities that came with the pandemic,” he said.
NCBA bank opened an MTN Escrow Account that allows them to provide Float Management Services to MTN Agents and Customers as an addition to the MoKash service.
“We will continue to innovate in this space to that we are positively impacting the lives of Ugandans,” he added.
Amidst all this, Ndegwa noted that there has been progress in Uganda’s Fintech industry over the past few years influenced by digital technologies hence raising opportunities for innovators to take advantage.
Ndegwa applauded the organizers of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative second edition, with reference to the positive changes in the FinTech sphere both domestic and globally since there weren’t many platforms to showcase these initiatives here in Uganda and across Africa.
The 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative is organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.
“With the introduction of the new regulation (National Payment Systems Act 2019) to support innovation in the Fintech space, Uganda will soon be a hub for financial services innovation,” Ndegwa revealed.
“With the 40-Days-40-FinTech’s initiative, Innovators have a platform that sheds light on the big transformations happening within the Digital Financial Services space,” he added.
Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo Chief Executive Officer said the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative looks around to boost the African FinTech ecosystem to enable innovators enjoy reliable profitability to help them design and deploy affordable and inclusive financial services especially for the less privileged.
40 Days 40 FinTechs season two started on 12th July 2021 featuring 42 players in the FinTech ecosystem. It will come to a climax on 2nd September 2021 during the FinTech Landscape Exhibition.
The aftermath is improvement in quality and quantity of innovations coming into the Fintech space.
