EZULWINI – Under the theme “Maximising the Fintech Space”, the 2022 Fintech Indaba has been largely focused on the collaboration that make financial inclusion in the country a reality. This conference on Financial Technology was held today at Ezulwini.
One leader in the Fintech space present at the conference was Digimage, the creators of ePaynet and iCredit. What ePaynet does is it provides an interoperable environment such that one can move money from their FNB accounts to their MoMo wallet, or send money from their MoMo wallet to a bank account or e-wallet. This enables Savings and Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) to disburse their emergency loans, among other things. SACCO’s were struggling during Covid because they couldn’t interact with their customers.
This sentiment of how COVID-19 accelerated some necessary changes in the way we approach finance was expressed by Digimage CEO, Sindiso Dlamini. Dlamini said that the work on financial inclusion “will not happen if we work in silos. it is therefore imperative that we share ideas for achieving our goals on financial inclusion. This is to say Digimage has to work like a team that makes sure that there is fintech development and financial inclusion in the space, together with the other stakeholders. Everyone deserves to be a part of the financial ecosystem, one way or the other”.
The CEO also explained that this is only possible because of the MTN Open API platform which enables any business to build fintech solutions that work with MTN Mobile Money. Another partnership in the eco-system is directed towards reducing the number of people who are not financially included in the country, from 27% to 15% by the end of 2022 – the figure has currently been reduced to 17%. The partners of the programme called Masibambisane are MTN Fintech, Taiwan ICDF and the Grameen Foundation from the United States. This programme makes it easier for women who are not banked to get quick loans if they are trying to fulfill tenders or orders beyond their financial muscle at the time.
Mbongeni Mtshali, who representated one of the regulating stakeholders, Eswatini Communications Commission, said that the commission is actually working on a national addressing system to make sure everyone has a physical and postal address to their name, which will be very helpful in e-commerce. “We’re working to ensure that all Emaswati has access to 4G so that these services are easily accessible. The other is the collaborative work we do with stakeholders to move enterprises forward,” noted Mtshali.
Grace Dludlu of the ICDF of the Taiwan Technical Commission also expressed an admiration of the effectiveness of their collaborative work in Financial Inclusion. She said, “The whole aim of the project is to focus on individual entrepreneurs out there. We also focus on groups in the rural areas which are income generating. We also focus on rural co-ops and savings co-ops, where the members can become part of the project so that they have formal financial access through the project. This programme empowers the women on entrepreneurship skills and all that’s needed for their businesses to startup and grow.” She also revealed that they also provide customized training services for the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses so that they join a coop which is formal, which will help them access loans and financial services. This project is another one which partners with Digimage.
The issue of security and regulation was also discussed in the conference – where it was revealed by the regulation commission that businesses have access to a regulatory sandbox to try out their fintech solutions in spite of their novelty to the country. This was echoed by representatives from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), and the ESCCOM, who said that it is important for them as regulators to know their place and recognize that Fintech comes in many forms.
Sabelo Sukati from Access to Finance at the Grameen Foundation also extolled the effectiveness of colloborating with stakeholders to promote fintech and financial inclusion in the ocuntry. “We focus on Financial Inclusion and we work with a lot partners like Kwakha Indvodza for awareness and advocacy. We started conducting a system of financial inclusion last year. We researched 100 women and sampled 40 of their spouses to find out the barriers of financial inclusion Eswatini. We launched an innovation prize open to all fintech players, to say ‘here are our findings, and what can you come up with in space which can be started and scaled?’ I’m happy that we got the proposals and made the selections – we eventually selected two organisations, Digimage and Imbita Women’s Finance Trust. We made it mandatory that they make financial literacy as part of their offering.”
Sibongile Shongwe from Imbita Women’s Finance Trust expressed immense appreciation for what their 30,000 members have benefitted from moving towards fintech. “We see the Fintech as working because we work with over 30,000 and almost all of them are happier about the integration and ease of working together now. Fintech reduces the costs of accessing finance, including travel and costs of inquiry as well as some compliance. As us on the ground we’re seeing huge opportunities being opened up because of how the system has made it easier for women to transact from the comfort of their own homes – whether it’s saving, borrowing, or transacting. Ours is to reduce the costs that they are exposed to – its for them to tap on it. We are happy to see that our members are taking advantage of this.
