Innovate More Uganda
Innovate More Uganda
Empowering Savings and Credit Cooperatives and Unions with digital information management systems to provide financial services to unbanked communities.
BCTA MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Alumni
SECTOR
Information Communication & Technology (ICT)
HEADQUARTERS
Uganda
REGION OF INITIATIVE
Africa
SDG CONTRIBUTION
RELATED NEWS
Fintech social enterprise Innovate More Uganda joined BCtA in March 2019 with a commitment to provide access to digital financial management services to 168,000 low income Ugandans, along with complementary digital finance and mobile banking training, by 2023.
Innovate More aims to foster financial inclusion for bottom of the pyramid (BoP) populations by working with unions and savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), which are the way through which most low income earners currently access informal banking services in Uganda. As most low income earners cannot access formal banking services, the unions and SACCOs offer basic savings and loan options to their members.
However, unions and SACCOs do not traditionally have centralised information management systems. Many of them still use paper based records and/or simple desktop applications that are hosted on office computers as financial management systems. Such applications are very vulnerable to manipulation, leading to fraud and mismanagement of customers’ finances. In addition, these applications do not allow integration of user friendly third party mobile tools like mobile money and SMS, which are vital in easing access of financial services to BoP populations.
To address this gap, Innovate More is providing these institutions with a tailored, cloud based, mobile money powered information management system called MCENTE, through which users can manage their banking information, including account status, money withdrawals and payments, using their mobile phones from the comfort of their homes or any preferred location. The software helps unions and cooperatives to automate their operations and hence build operational efficiency, cut costs and improve their reach.
MCENTE is tailored to the specific needs of each customer, and is able to easily scale to areas of poor internet connectivity though tailored access point networks. MCENTE currently has a membership of 56,000 low income earners across Uganda, which it plans to grow to 168,000 by 2023.
But it doesn’t plan to stop there. Innovate More is currently in talks with Nigeria’s largest transporter’s union – with a membership of 2,000,000 members – and has also submitted a bid to the Development Fund for Local Authorities in Malawi in order to scale its model outside of Uganda.