The 2023 FinTech Landscape Exhibition was successfully held on Thursday 6th July, attracting over 300 participants including Government policymakers, Tech Giants, Financial services providers and more than 40 participating FinTechs.
The FinTech Landscape Exhibition was the climax event of this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative which featured 43 companies from Uganda and Kenya between 7th May and June 23rd.
It was highlighted by the different companies that showcased their financial inclusion solutions in areas such as payments, e-commerce, savings & credit, e-insurance, digital healthcare, and e-education among others.
The exhibition was spiced up with four-panel discussions that expounded on key financial inclusion topics namely; Delivering affordable financial products to poor and vulnerable groups using FinTech, Introducing the unbanked Women and Youth to the formal financial inclusion ecosystem with FinTech, Encouraging transactional account usage using FinTech intuitive mobile apps and USSD-based innovations and Modernizing lending models and improving affordable and timely credit with FinTech. This was in addition to an open public discussion about How to use FinTech to bank the unbanked population and banking opportunities for SMEs.
Both the 2023 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative and the FinTech Landscape Exhibition were organized by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Ideation Corner, Cyberplc Academy, and Crosslake Technologies with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo CEO noted that this annual activity continues to positively impact Uganda and Africa’s financial inclusion revolution by offering Innovators a fair chance to not only showcase their solutions but to also discuss key issues affecting the industry.
“For the past three years, we have been discussing the need for Uganda to have a national payment switch. This has been a key topic in the past three editions of the FinTech Landscape Exhibition. I am glad to report that recently; the Bank of Uganda announced the kick-off of the bidding process for the Provision of a Bank of Uganda National Payments Switch (BNPS). This shows that our efforts are not in vain; our voices are being heard and action is being taken to address the issues we raise,” Kawooya noted.
Government commits to addressing Internet and Network issues.
ICT state minister Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo, who was the 2023 FinTech Landscape Exhibition chief guest acknowledged HiPipo’s contribution to Uganda’s digital and financial inclusion journey, noting that through such events, innovators’ ideas and solutions are showcased and their efforts vindicated.
She said that digital payments will benefit from accessible and affordable Internet, noting that as the Ministry of ICT, they were working with other government agencies, donors, private investors and innovators to make the Internet cheaper, reliable and readily available across the country.
Further, James Beronda, the Head of Technical Services at Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) noted that the commission is working with the telecoms and other partners such as World Bank to address network and connectivity problems that continue to disrupt the adoption and consistent usage of digital solutions mainly in rural and sparsely populated areas. HiPipo patron, also a member of parliament for Kigorobya county, Hon David Karubanga applauded this year’s participants for their effort in enhancing financial inclusion. He reiterated HiPipo’s commitment to Uganda and Africa’s complete digitization.
