Xente Tech Limited, a mobile financial services and e-commerce platform is increasingly gaining momentum in Uganda, especially among the women, owing to its ability to help business owners and their teams, manage expenses.
According to the Xente Tech chief executive officer Allan Rwakatungu, the Financial Technology Company (FinTech) offers an all-in-one business account that helps business owners and finance teams manage expenses, make payments to team members, suppliers and to collect payments.
Key among its solutions are disbursements – sending mobile money, airtime or data to groups of people and payment collections – collecting money from mobile money, Visa or MasterCard, on behalf of businesses.
Additionally, Rwakatungu notes that the FinTech is also in the process of launching two other solutions including an Online Payments solution that will enable businesses make online payments with virtual Visa cards and an Expense Management solution that will enable businesses make payments for expenses such as fuel, meals, per diem and other expenses using physical cards.
This, Rwakatungu explains that this will help drive Uganda towards a cashless economy.
“A lot of businesses today manage their expenses manually using cash or cheques. This means that when one needs money for everyday expenses, they have to walk to their accounts department. But now when people are working remotely, that is not possible anymore.
“However, this solution will help businesses continue to do everyday business payments during this pandemic and a lot of businesses are using our solution to pay staff, suppliers and other stakeholders during this pandemic from home,” Rwakatungu says.
While Xente has a number of clients including Jumia, M-Kopa and UAP, among others, Rwakatungu says that about 70% of the FinTech’s clients are women, who he says have been facilitated to work more efficiently.
40 Days 40 FinTechs
Xente Tech is among the 40 financial technology companies participating in the second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.
The initiative which provides a platform for FinTechs and stakeholders in the digital and financial technology space to exhibit their products and share ideas, seeks to boost the African FinTech ecosystem to enable innovators enjoy sustainable profitability to help them design and deploy affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor.
“Xente has participated in 40-DayS 40 FinTechs initiative because we believe in partnership and collaboration to move the FinTech industry forward,” Rwakatungu says.
For better service provision, Rwakatungu says that Xente implements LevelOneProject principles that put forward guidance for real time movement and settlement of transactions, which is important especially for people at the bottom of the pyramid.
“We put emphasis on things like progressive Know-Your-Customer (KYC), instant payment settlements and ensuring that our customer care is responsive. To us, these principles give us a competitive advantage.”
Rwakatungu alludes that people are increasingly adopting digital payment methods and cross-border payments, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created an opportunity for FinTechs and the African continent to leap into the future.
He adds that adopting digital payments will allow faster financial inclusion and faster trade.
Juicy startups attractive to investors
The HiPipo chief executive officer Innocent Kawooya also alludes that FinTech in Africa offers attractive opportunities, adding that investors are rightfully picking interest in the various startups that are offering a plethora of services, ranging from payments and lending, remittances, cross-border transfers and neobanks.
“Each of these services solves unique sets of challenges. For example; with cross-border payments comes the opportunity to erase the outrageous rates and bureaucratic bottlenecks that stymie transactions and thus trade among African countries,” Kawooya said.
According to Kawooya, the 40-Days 40 FinTechs initiative seeks to give exposure to the best emerging and transformative innovators of Africa.
“We are able to successfully implement this project due to the generous support of the Gates Foundation through the LevelOneProject Initiative. The second edition of the 40-days 40-FinTech project is expected to end on August 26, 2021.
