Our Reporter. Marie Mintalucci has spent a number of years supporting female-led groups across Sub-Saharan Africa to create self-sustaining ventures. However, during this time, she has mainly made two observations. One, women often borrow huge sums of money for unprofitable purposes like sending children to school or putting a new roof on the house. However, […]
Our Reporter. Launched in 2013, EzeeMoney is a technology company dealing in both financial and non-financial services that target people at the bottom of the pyramid. On the financial side, EzeeMoney runs an agent-based model where they give out point-of-sale terminals to agents to facilitate bill payments, bill collections and other mobile financial services. […]
Our Reporter. In Africa, the sources of business capital are usually personal funds, family, friends and loans. The first three are usually the ideal sources while the fourth is the most realistic. As such access to affordable and readily available credit is key to the success and sustainability of businesses. Big and well-established businesses easily […]
Our Reporter. One of the biggest challenges faced by Ugandan migrant workers working in the Diaspora is money remittance. The cost of sending money is very high, ranging between five and ten dollars for transferring little amounts. On top of this, many have been defrauded of their hard-earned money – sometimes by their own relatives […]
Our Reporter. Many Ugandans are full of business ideas but their biggest bottleneck is the lack of capital and inability to access credit. For a financial institution to give your business a loan, they will ask for a trading license, national ID, bank statement, tax report among others. They therefore get stuck in the informal […]
Our Reporter. Almost everyone has ever received a phone call or text with the person on the other side saying that s/he has an emergency and urgently needs financial assistance. Such communication takes a lot of guts, and somewhat courage on the side of the requester because reaching out for help is never a guarantee […]
Our Reporter. Anyone doing business in Uganda will tell you that paying rent is one of their biggest nightmares. Whether you have made profits or not; whether you have spent the month sick or away attending to a patient, or whether you were in a Covid-19 lockdown; the landlord will always want their rent paid […]
Our Reporter. Many young corporates harbor dreams that would satisfy their heart’s desires. They would like to have nice cars, trendy phones, beautiful TV sets, durable furniture, name it! But their meager salaries are only enough for the daily essential needs. So, they keep dreaming! However, PayLater Uganda has come to make these dreams a […]
Our Reporter. 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, […]
Our Reporter. With the worsening economic situation in the country, on top of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, most Ugandans have resorted to seeking short-term loans from friends and family to make ends meet. But this is an unsustainable scenario because even those friends are struggling too, trying hard to survive with the little […]
Our Reporter. When Uganda was put into a total lockdown in March 2020 due to the outbreak of Covid-19, my stylist’s hair salon came to a grand halt. She was forced to close business six months later because she could not afford to pay the rent arrears demanded by her landlord despite the fact that […]
By Our writer Away from its negative consequences, the COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener to individuals and businesses. It brought the role and overall importance of digital financial services (DFS) at the forefront. Further, the pandemic opened opportunities for Financial Technology companies (FinTechs) to come up with innovative solutions that have since transformed the […]
Our Reporter. For those that have attended events in Uganda, you are familiar with the hustle and bustle involved in buying entry tickets. This includes long queues, higher prices than originally advertised and fraudsters selling fake tickets among other issues. But all this will soon be history; if event organizers and revelers can incorporate technology […]
Our Reporter. Majority of Ugandans are just one medical emergency and hospital admission away from financial ruin and untold disaster. This is because accessing quality healthcare is very expensive and a preserve of a few. Even though the government, with support from development partners, has invested massively in healthcare, the cost of medication remains […]
Our Reporter. Have you ever been with an account that has money but are unable to access it? Put differently, has someone ever called you with an emergency that needs money? You may even have the money but are unable to send it to this person because of the absence of a transfer system? A […]