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sawsanenn

Is M-Pesa really Kenyan or British? - 1 views

  • Hailed as the “Kenyan technology success story”, many have claimed M-PESA to be a testimony to the greatness of the East African country’s technology scene, producing world-class technology companies that rival those in South Africa. However, is the acclaimed mobile money service really Kenyan at all? The answer is no. M-PESA is British.
    • hichamachir
       
      M-Pesa can be a british company but it's becoming part of the Kenyan culture. It's not important whether it's British or Kenyan, the most important thing is that M-Pesa revolutionized the Kenyan economy and played a huge role to develop the financial industry in Kenya.
  • By any stretch of the currently available facts, the service that accounts for more than 60 percent of Kenya’s GDP in transactions was conceived by British professionals. The company commissioned with developing the idea, Sagentia, into a workable technology was British. Additionally, the company that owns the intellectual property rights to the idea, Vodafone, is British and, lastly, it was funded in its initial stages by the British Government.
    • samielbaqqali
       
      M-Pesa may be a British business, but it is becoming a part of the culture of Kenya. Whether it's British or Kenyan, the most important thing is that M-Pesa has revolutionized the Kenyan economy and played a major role in the growth of Kenya's financial sector.
  • Despite this certificate being awarded in 2012 and being stated as being in the LITERARY category, Ouko insists he is the original M-PESA innovator and further elaborates by saying that he has been “trying to Patent a Money Transfer system way back in 2003”. Even though he says that he believes many more Kenyans contributed to the innovation and development of M-PESA without recognition or reward, he writes, “Even though I currently believe I am the one, I start this with an open mind. If another person or firm comes forward with compelling proof I am ready to step aside and support that person.”
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  • Nyagaka Anyona Ouko, a Kenyan from Nairobi, claims he is the innovator of M-Pesa and claims that Vodafone and its representatives stole the idea of Mobile Cash Transfer from him.
    • ghtazi
       
      there is a lot of perspectives about the fact that M-Pesa is not really a Kenyan product but a British product. Nyagaka Anyona Ouko, a Kenyan from Nairobi, claims he is the innovator of M-Pesa and accuses Vodafone of plagiarism. but the story vanished quicker than it appears.
  • By any stretch of the currently available facts, the service that accounts for more than 60 percent of Kenya’s GDP in transactions was conceived by British professionals. The company commissioned with developing the idea, Sagentia, into a workable technology was British. Additionally, the company that owns the intellectual property rights to the idea, Vodafone, is British and, lastly, it was funded in its initial stages by the British Government.
    • sawsanenn
       
      This excerpt is important because it shows how M-Pesa helped in the economic growth of Kenya. They also helped in expanding the fintech culture in the country
mohammed_ab

Kiva: A crowdlending twist on traditional microfinance - Digital Innovation and Transfo... - 0 views

  • Kiva utilizes an innovative peer-to-peer crowdlending platform to enable budding entrepreneurs across the globe to access the funds they need to help themselves out of poverty. Kiva, founded in 2005, was one of the first non-profit platforms developed to enable “crowdlending” of loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries unable to access credit in more formal manners. Kiva’s innovative model of using the internet to enable peer-to-peer transactions has largely been successful to date. Over 1.3M individuals have lent to over 1.7M entrepreneurs around the world, with a total of almost 1M loans amounting to $773M.
  •  
    This excerpt explains exactly the mission of Kiva, a crowdfunding platform that links borrowers and lenders around the world to support entrepreneurs who have difficulties accessing formal loans. I really like the idea behind this fintech as it solves a major issue in emerging countries.
hibaerrai

Spotting Emerging Fintech: Y Combinator Summer '20 Batch - Tomas Vysny - 0 views

  • Thndr is aiming to build a Robinhood for the Middle East, helping users invest in stock, bonds and funds commission-free via the company’s free app. Robinhood has taken the US exchanges by storm, but the trend hasn’t hit investors in the Middle East; Thndr is aiming to replicate their success with investors there.
    • hibaerrai
       
      The probability of this fintech to become a robinhood of the Middle East is high as it already is one of the most popular investment apps in the country.
mohammed_ab

Crowdsourcing student loans: Student financing in Kenya with Kiva and Strathmore Univer... - 1 views

  • n 2012, the micro-lending institute Kiva partnered with Kenya’s Strathmore University to offer tuition loans to low-income students. The loans were crowdfunded by Kiva and distributed by Strathmore University, who selected applicants based on the criteria of having high academic performance and coming from a low-income household, among other requirements. From 2012 to 2018, Kiva fundraised USD 762,675, which was distributed to 84 students who received an average loan of USD 9,004. The program ended in 2018 because the delinquency rate had risen to 14.65%, with many students being unable to pay back their loan owing to scarce job opportunities after graduation (Kiva, 2018).
    • hichamachir
       
      Kiva is treating a very important point in the society. It's to facilitate students loans. I think that kiva is playing it smart at this point because as we know students loans can be expensive to get and kiva found a solution for which can make the company very successful.
  • In 2012, the micro-lending institute Kiva partnered with Kenya’s Strathmore University to offer tuition loans to low-income students. The loans were crowdfunded by Kiva and distributed by Strathmore University, who selected applicants based on the criteria of having high academic performance and coming from a low-income household, among other requirements. From 2012 to 2018, Kiva fundraised USD 762,675, which was distributed to 84 students who received an average loan of USD 9,004
  •  
    I think that Kiva is a platform that could benefit different market segments. Their main value proposition is to help entrepreneurs find funds for their business. However, as it can be seen in this article, Kiva could also serve students who have difficulties in financing their studies. I think that this is the power of crowdfunding, It can be used in many areas of life.
mehdi-ezzaoui

Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems | Center For Global Development - 1 views

  • And finally in Kiva's defense, its behavior is emblematic of fund-raising in microfinance and charity generally, and is ultimately traceable to human foibles. People donate in part because it makes them feel good. Giving the beneficiary a face and constructing a story for her in which the donor helps write the next chapter opens purses. The pleasure of giving
  • Kiva is the path-breaking, fast-growing person-to-person microlending site. It works this way: Kiva posts pictures and stories of people needing loans. You give your money to Kiva. Kiva sends it to a microlender. The lender makes the loan to a person you choose. He or she ordinarily repays. You get your money back with no interest. It's like eBay for microcredit.
  • You knew that, right? Well guess what: you're wrong, and so is Kiva's diagram. Less that 5% of Kiva loans are disbursed after they are listed and funded on Kiva's site. Just today, for example, Kiva listed a loan fepor Phong Mut in Cambodia and at this writing only $25 of the needed $800 has been raised. But you needn't worry about whether Phong Mut will get the loan because it was disbursed last month. And if she defaults, you might not hear about it: the intermediating microlender MAXIMA might cover for her in order to keep its Kiva-listed repayment rate high.
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  • Like most innovations, Kiva is not entirely new. Rather, it is an ingenious fusion of older ideas. One is child sponsorship, which Save the Children pioneered in 1940. A family in a rich country sends $10 or $20 each month to a designated child in a poor country via a charity. In return, the family receives a photo and an update at least once a year. When I was perhaps eight, my family sponsored Constance, a Greek girl about my age, through Save the Children. I remember looking at her solemn face in two successive black and white portraits, trying to judge how much she had grown in a year.
  •  
    Kiva should be careful about spreading a fake image about the company. The article states that kiva is not what people thinks and that there's another company that helps her but I think that kiva business idea is very good because and people don't have to link it with something bad.
  •  
    This article has shown that KIVA spread the wrong image of its business. I think the company should be careful not to disseminate such information as it could destroy their image and people might not believe it anymore.
  •  
    the person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional. I suspect that most Kiva users do not realize this. Yet Kiva prides itself on transparency.
mohammed_ab

Kiva's 5 Year Growth Plan | Kiva - 0 views

  • We've set three strategic goals that we believe are both ambitious and achievable within the next 5-years:1. Raise $1 billion in loans over the internet2. Reach 2 million entrepreneurs around the world3. Realize our own self-sufficiency in the process.
  •  
    This excerpt highlights why we should have more fintech companies like Kiva. Even if the company was a pure success story during the first four years of operations, Kiva is still aiming at having more impact all over the world by reaching $1 billion in loans.
ghtazi

African fintech startup Jumo raises $12.5M more to fund Asia expansion | TechCrunch - 0 views

  • African fintech startup Jumo has pulled in a fresh $12.5 million to add more fuel for its expansion into Asia Pacific.
  • Jumo specializes in social impact financial products, such as microloans, savings and insurance.
  • It started in Tanzania, and today claims to have originated more than $1 billion in loans.
    • ghtazi
       
      Jumo started in Tanzania and claims that it has originated more than 1 billion loans. Jumo specializes in financial goods with social effects, such as microloans, deposits, and insurance. it was fonded in 2014
  •  
    After being successful in the African continent, Jumo is now expanding to Asia as it seems being a good fit for a company that is offering microloans.
mehdibella

JUMO Empowers Asian And African Market With Over $2.5 Billion, Eyes Nigeria, 2 Others - 2 views

  • JUMO also has a mobile wallet technology that offers an easy-to-use service that is accessible via mobile devices.Watkins-Ball commented on the cost-effective technology used to collect information which strengthened the business model, He said: “When we founded JUMO, we were always clear that we can only achieve our mission by leveraging sophisticated information technologies at really low cost.
  • JUMO Empowers Asian And African Market With Over $2.5 Billion, Eyes Nigeria, 2 Others
  • JUMO is one of South Africa’s next-generation fintech companies offering emerging market entrepreneurs financial services.
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  • The tech startup was built as a unique platform to help facilitate digital financial services such as credit, and savings in emerging markets, and has handed out over $1.8 billion prior to date since its founding in London in 2015.
    • mehdibella
       
      it has partnered with telecommunications companies, funders, and banks, to create accessible financial tools, and insurance products targeted at entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and also offers accessible financial services to both Asia and Africa's unbanked populations.
  • “We’re optimistic about the  possibilities in these markets and continue to see huge growth  opportunities in Africa, with the potential to replicate our successes  in other markets over the longer term.”
    • mehdibella
       
      Jumo also hopes to explore the Indian, Nigerian, and Ivorian markets in no distant future.
  • JUMO Empowers Asian And African Market With Over $2.5 Billion, Eyes Nigeria, 2 Others
  • JUMO is one of South Africa’s next-generation fintech companies offering emerging market entrepreneurs financial services.
    • samiatazi
       
      Jumo won many awards all over the worlds and grants that will help it as a company to grow and expand its business into other countries
  • The tech startup was built as a unique platform to help facilitate digital financial services such as credit, and savings in emerging markets, and has handed out over $1.8 billion prior to date since its founding in London in 2015.
  •  
    I like the way that JUMO is clear about delivering a great technology with a low cost! I think that Fintechs must act based on this logic.
mbellakbail69

Fawry: Making Payments Easier For 22 Million Egyptians | EgyptInnovate - 1 views

  • echnology and its trends has made our lives easier especially in the fields of financial technology and payments. Now there are more advanced ways of payments and one of the most important players in Egypt in this field is Fawry. Fawry offers financial services to consumers and businesses through different channels and locations. Through Fawry you can pay your mobile, landline and utilities bills, donate money, renew your car license and more. Fawry was founded in 2008 and officially started in the market in 2010. They now have offered their service to reach 80,000 points of service in 300 cities all over Egypt. Their portfolio of businesses include: Orange, Vodafone, Etisalat, Go Bus, Lynks, Anghami, Ahl Misr Foundation, Resala and more
    • hibaerrai
       
      Fawry made sure to regroup the strongest team from the beginning to work smoothly on the project. Also, they worked hard on changing the culture within the country, and push people to go for non traditional payment methods.
  • We started by hiring the best people we could find, for any startup to succeed it needs a really strong team especially at the beginning. We also got a good fund at the beginning from different entities such as Raya Holding, Technology Development Fund (Ideavelopers), Arab African International Bank, HSBC, Alexbank and other banks, this is what helped us build our brand.
  • Strong team management and good negotiation skills. The second thing is that it was a mutual investment fund, those investors already liked Fawry’s model and didn’t want to change anything but just help accelerate our growth with some cash. We are now a large corporate but with the spirit of a startup. Even until now, we appreciate everyone’s input at the company whether they have been working here for a month or 5 years. it doesn’t matter.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      Fawry was the only one investing in the business during that time.
  •  
    I like how this excerpt underlines the different investors who believed in the value proposition of Fawry from the beginning. We see big names like HSBC that saw the potential of the idea and invested in the start-up.
hindelquarrouti

Integrated marketing communication and technology adoption : a case of Safaricom's M-PE... - 1 views

  • Safaricom had used IMC strategies befitting their target market compared to its competition to diffuse information on the M-PESA innovation
  •  
    Although There are a lot of companies in Africa, none of them was able to achieve the same success as M-Pesa. And this might be tracked back to the fact that it has incorporated the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies which helped it capturing and exploiting customers information in order to use them in the most efficient way.
mehdibella

AgroCenta : empowering smallholder farmers in Africa through technology and innovations - 0 views

  •  AgroCenta’s main competitors are Esoko (www.esoko.com), FarmerLine (www.farmerline.co) and Farm Radio (www.farmradio.org). These 3 competitors are “information-based” only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
    • aminej
       
      Some of the main competitors of AgroCenta's are Esoko , FarmerLine and Farm Radio. These 3 competitors are not really competitors because they do not provide the same services. These competitors are more "information-based" only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
  • AgroCenta came about when both co-founders identified the missing gap in the post harvest value chain, that is access to market for smallholder farmers. This gap gave way to exploitative buying from middlemen at the disadvantage to the smallholder farmer.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it shows the need that AgroCenta founders identified in Ghana, and thus reflects the company's reason for existing.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas. TrucKR : TruckR is the on-demand trucks & logistics aspect of AgroCenta where farmers can book for truck delivery services to cart their commodities from farms to markets just at a click of a button AgroInfo : Real time weather, market prices and extension advisory services are delivered via SMS and voice solutions to smallholder farmers using mobile technologies AgroPay : AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because one can identify the different products and services proposed by the firm.
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  • AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      I find this concept beneficial for all farmers because they will be able to have more direct access to larger markets. This way they could earn more and interact more.
  • Francis Obirikorang is the CEO/Co-founder of AgroCenta and Michael Ocansey is the CTO/Co-founder of AgroCenta. Francis and Michael are both ex-employees of Esoko, one of the largest market information platforms in Africa for smallholder farmers.
  • AgroCenta’s success factor is the elimination of the exploitative buying approach from the post harvest value chain, and putting the smallholder farmer at a pivotal position where they are able to sell their commodities to interested buyers fairly, generate enough income and become financially independent
    • mehdibella
       
      AgroCenta provides the "last mile" approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta's services include: -AgroTrade: platform connecting farmers to markets and promoting fair trade. -TrucKR: farmers can have access to transportation through this platform. - AgroInfo: platform that gives useful insights to farmers (weather, market prices) - AgroPay: a platform for financial inclusion, giving small and underbanked farmers the possibility to receive payments via their mobile.
  • AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • sawsanenn
       
      It is a good service because it is a good alternative for smallholders farmers to receive secure payments even without owning a bank account
  • AgroCenta provides the “last mile” approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
    • ghtazi
       
      AgroCenta gives smallholder farmers the "last mile" solution, moving a step further to help farmers sell competitively after only collecting demand knowledge from existing e-agricultural products on the market.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      It is a good service because it is a good way for farmers, even without getting a bank account, to get safe payments  This idea is great for all producers, so they will have direct access to bigger markets more effectively. They will gain more and engage with more.
nourserghini

Top five technologies that will transform the Fintech sector in 2020 - 0 views

  • Fintech technology number one: The growing number of RegTech solutionsRegulatory technology is benefiting from recent groundbreaking fintech software innovations, creating automated solutions to manage regulation monitoring, compliance, and reporting. Keeping track of new restrictions in a single database is a comfortable way of adopting a financial institution to legal requirements.
    • nourserghini
       
      Fintechs can also conder starting Regtechs as well to create automated solutions for monitoring regulations, especially consider their success in the digital world.
nourserghini

Nigeria's Paga acquires Apposit, confirms Mexico and Ethiopia expansion | TechCrunch - 1 views

  • As it grows abroad, Paga faces greater competition in Nigeria. For the last decade, South Africa and Kenya — with the success of Safaricom’s  M-Pesa product — have been Africa’s standouts in digital payments.But over the last several years, Nigeria has become a magnet for VC and fintech startups. This trend reached a high-point in 2019 when Chinese investors put $220 million into Opera owned OPay and Transsion backed PalmPay — two fledgling startups with plans to scale in Nigeria and broader Africa.
    • nourserghini
       
      Paga's competitors in its origin country Nigeria and broader Africa are M-pesa and PalmPay.
  • With its Apposit acquisition and continued expansion, PayPal may become more than a model for Paga.Founder Tayo Oviosu sees big fintech players, such as PayPal and Alipay, as future competitors with Paga’s plans to move into more emerging markets.
    • nourserghini
       
      Competition in emerging markets for Paga are big fintechs such as PayPal and Alipay.
samielbaqqali

SA fintech JUMO selected to join second cohort of Google Launchpad Studio - Ventureburn - 0 views

  • SA fintech JUMO selected to join second cohort of Google Launchpad Studio - Ventureburn
    • samielbaqqali
       
      The success of Jumo has gotten so big thyat they started to get selected with some multinationals like Google
  • Established in 2017, Launchpad Studio is a fully-tailored product development acceleration programme that gives selected startups the unique opportunity to work hand-in-hand with Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) research and development teams, with access to seasoned experts and mentors from Google and Silicon Valley.
mohammed_ab

The Complex Insurance Coverage Reporter - September 2020 - The Complex Insurance Covera... - 0 views

  • Over the last decade, there has been a global increase in the focus on climate change and the risks and dangers associated with it. And for good reason. Damage from climate-related disasters was in the billions of dollars in 2019 alone. California wildfires caused $25 billion in property damage, while Typhoon Hagibis in Japan cost an estimated $15 billion. Other extreme weather events, including rampant brush fires in Australia, widespread droughts in East Africa and severe flooding in South Asia, have had devastating consequences.
  • Like Kin, NYC-based WorldCover was created in response to climate-related disasters. It works to provide drought insurance to farmers in Africa. When first launched, WorldCover was available only in Ghana and covered only one crop: maize. Since then, the company has expanded to multiple markets in East and West Africa, covering four categories of crops: cereals, legumes, root vegetables and perennials. WorldCover uses a combination of satellite imagery and on-the-ground sensors to understand local weather patterns in order to create insurance options for farmers facing some of the world’s worst droughts. The company uses its satellites to monitor rainfall patterns and trigger payouts immediately.
  •  
    I think that the testing phase of WorldCover was very smart. World Cover started offering micro-insurance for only one type of crop which is maize. After a great success with this type of crop, the company started to broaden its coverage to other types of crops and to other markets like East and West Africa. The company uses machine learning and satellite imagery to analyze the weather and the land of the farmers which in my opinion helps the company in being very accurate and efficient.
hichamachir

The Anglophones Are Coming | Global Finance Magazine - 0 views

  • In January, Flutterwave announced a takedown of US$35 million to boost its expansion into sub-Saharan Francophone markets and North Africa. A month later, Jumo pushed its cumulative fundraising since 2015 to nearly US$150 million with a successful plea for cash to back its initiatives in Côte D’Ivoire, Nigeria and elsewhere on the continent.
  •  
    JUMO is expanding in all Africa and it shows that the company aspire to dominate the whole African continent in its domain. I like this kind of behavior because when things are doing great, you have to aspire for everything!
mohammed_ab

Mobile money platform Pngme raises $3M to expand across Africa - 0 views

  • Africa-focused but U.S. based unified financial data platform Pngme this week announced its successful seed funding round raised $3 million.
  • Pngme hopes to tap into the burgeoning mobile money market in Africa that was kicked off with M-Pesa in 2007. Launched in Kenya, M-Pesa is a mobile banking service that allows users to store and transfer money through their mobile phones, largely targeting a massive population of unbanked citizens in the sub-Saharan region.
  •  
    Pngme has been able to raise $3 Million to expand its operation on mobile money into Africa. This competitor could acquire more market shares from M-Pesa if it succeeds to penetrate the African market using the right strategy.
kenzabenessalah

M-Pesa Expands to Europe with Service Launch in Romania | Center for Financial Inclusion - 0 views

  • M-Pesa, the mobile money service success story that began in Kenya in 2007 is continuing its march, this time into the surprising location of Romania, raising the questions, what will the product look like in this new European market and how will it fare. At the end of last month Vodafone, the operator behind the new service and one of Romania’s largest telcos, began operations using the country’s 300 Vodafone Romania stores, participating retail outlets, and authorized agents.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      What I found surprising was the fact that M-PESA began operating in Africa and then entered the Romanian market
chaimaa-rachid

IfG.CC - Egypt: Fawry launches first nation-wide electronic bill payment and presentmen... - 2 views

  • "The success of Fawry is driven by the adoption of a large number of billers and banks to ensure that the largest part of the Egyptian population can benefit from Fawry," said Magda Habib, chief commercial officer at Fawry. "We are in the process of on-boarding a significant number of new members across a diversity of services ranging from social clubs to schools to utilities and insurance, ensuring that Egyptians are able to access and pay their bills across a wide range of services with ease and complete security through Fawry."
  •  
    I appreciate how Fawry cares about its customers, they want to make sure all Egyptians are able to use their various secure payment options.
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