Gone are the days when people struggled to send and receive money. The days when people had to queued up in long lines, armed with all manners of identification documents just to transact.
Digital Financial Services have reduced most of these inconveniences as people are now able to send and receive money on their phones, in the comfort of their homes, offices or wherever the transaction finds them.
Among the platforms that are facilitating seamless transactions and payments is MoneySent; a financial technology company that focuses on supporting transactions.
“We leverage on technology to enable people send and receive money anywhere around the world. We also enable people make payments, digitize savings groups, support fundraising and are also in to real estate. MoneySent is accessible as a mobile Application. After downloading it, you register and submit your KYC after which you are able to transact. Before an account is verified, you can receive money but cannot withdraw it,” James Mukasa, Founder and CEO of MoneySent.
He added: “We have integrated our system with different payment gateways, so someone can deposit money on to MoneySent through mobile money, bank transfers and through our agents spread across the country. When someone sends you money, you can receive it directly through the Money Sent account if you have our account. If you don’t have our account, it can be sent directly from MoneySent to mobile money. You can also withdraw through a bank account or our agents.”
According to James Mukasa, Money Sent currently has close to 1000 agents spread across the country and has served more than 10,000 customers in the past 3 years. He nonetheless notes that their reach and impact would be even higher hadn’t been for cash constraints that have limited their service rollout.
In addition to facilitating transactions, Mukasa noted that MoneySent also supports payments including Water and Electricity bills, Pay TV, and Tax payments among others.
He revealed that as a start-up in the FinTech space; unfair regulations, high charges and cyber security threats are their biggest challenges. He noted that for now, MoneySent is still working under the Bank of Uganda sandbox but continues to work towards securing its license.
MoneySent has featured on Day 35 of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s #IncludeEveryone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, #WomeninFinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; #LevelOneProject, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.