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Open APIs will Advance Digital Saving and Loans Innovations. Remarks of Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo

Digital Saving and Loans is offering quick small loans/saving remotely over digital channels such as for  M-Shwari in Kenya, Mokash and Wewole in Uganda.  Digital saving and loans can benefit borrowers as an alternative to informal lending sources to meet emergency liquidity needs of poor households and provide a first step into formal financial services.  In promoting financial services for the poor, banking and telecom organization should enable digital driven means for developing saving culture which would spur better and less risk lending trends and decisions.   P2P lending, SACCO lending can all be digitized if small Fintechs and developers are given the right tools and APIs to integrate into the financial platform of big Telecoms and banks. The data available already for customer GSM and Mobile Money transactions is a starting ground to help in offering well-tailored products to key segments of the poor, youth and women that we need to be more included in formal financial services.

“Open APIs will Advance Digital Saving and Loans Innovations. Under Include Everyone program, we believe that the more we promote OPEN API for identify (KYC), Data and Transaction use cases, the more we shall propel innovation to delivered financial services for the poor” remarks Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo.

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Include Everyone to spearhead Mojaloop adoption outreach engagements – Remarks of Innocent Kawooya CEO HiPipo

In all Africa countries that have adopted digital financial services, Digital and mobile technologies make it possible to reach new customers with innovative, low-cost financial services. While this interconnection is feasible, the lack of a shared platform connecting all financial services players, means that financial providers have to build everything on their own which this raises costs.

Mojaloop as an open-source software for creating digital payments platforms that connect all customers, merchants, banks, and other financial providers in a country’s economy will make it cheaper for interoperability realization in all markets.

Being opensource, mojaloop is expected to grow robust and stable with community contributions while  financial services players use the open-source software to help build digital, interoperable payments platforms that drive financial inclusion on a national, regional and continental scales.

Majoolop based platforms will enable seamless, low-cost transactions between individual users, merchants, banks, providers, and even government offices – helping connect poor customers with everyone else in the digital economy.

Mojaloop grew out of principles set forth by the Financial Services for the Poor team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With support and funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mojaloop was designed by a team of leading tech and fintech companies: Ripple, Dwolla, ModusBox, Software Group and Crosslake Technologies.

As part of our Include Everyone Program and as contributors in the open source community. HiPipo will spearhead outreach programs to popularize Mojaloop and promote its adoption at different national levels. Innocent Kayoowa CEO of HiPipo noted that unless individuals, fintechs and all concerned parties on the African continent take on the challenge and mantle of promoting practical projects and product such as Mojaloop that promote interoperability, the cost of financial services will remain on the higher side hindering many of the poor to actively participate and be financially included.

 

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We are Financial Inclusion

An estimated 2 billion working-age adults – more than half of the world’s total adult population – do not have an account at a formal financial institution. Financial inclusion efforts seek to ensure that all individuals households and businesses, regardless of income level, have access to and can effectively use the appropriate financial services they need to improve their lives. The benefits of financial inclusion are not only significant for individuals but for economies as well. Financial inclusion is linked to a country’s economic and social development and plays a role in reducing extreme poverty.