Yo! Uganda Limited is currently enabling Financial Institutions to reduce costs by accepting deposits from their customers directly from their Mobile Money wallets and transmitting withdrawals directly to their Mobile Money wallets.

We can speak of branchless banking advantages from two perspectives: the customers and service providers.

Business perspective:
Investing in cashless banking can bring a huge payoff for the business. Branchless solutions don’t require investing in building and supplying new bank departments. Therefore, they are not so high-priced. A bank can invest saved resources in developing new products, additional digital services, or improving existing ones.

Branchless banking facilitates reaching out to new customers from various, sometimes hard-accessible locations. Thus, not only can a bank save money, but at the same time welcome more clients into the fold.

Investing in branchless banking solutions can keep your business ahead of the competition. As the world is moving forward – banks should too. To stay relevant in the financial market, it is essential to follow current trends and respond to new, every time more exacting needs of your clients.

Customer perspective:
Customers can enjoy seamless transactions that can be performed from any place in the world as long as they have a good internet connection. Whether you are a city businessman or a rural area locator – the way you bank can be much more convenient.

Online banking services are usually easy and intuitive. What was a complicated process can now be completed with a few taps on the phone screen. Thus, even if you don’t feel too confident with digital apps, you should be able to learn in no time how to master them.

Branchless banking gives customers the convenience of transacting using multiple avenues such as voucher less top-up, loan settlements, cardless withdrawals, cash deposits, money transfers, tax and bill payments, etc. Financial institutions that rely on biometric verifications should be cautious in times of outbreak. And branchless banking resolves this issue by using OTPs and sharing virtual transaction receipts with customers via email or SMS.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that virtual banking has revolutionized the financial industry, and it is going to develop even further in the future. Innovative distribution channels with the perspective of customer convenience are going to emerge. Because of this, the operators will soon compete with each other for their space in the next-level agency banking space. The future looks extremely promising!

What do FinTech companies do?
FinTech is the abbreviated form of Financial Technology is a range of financial services software that is used by companies to automate traditional financial methods. For instance, for us as Yo! Uganda Limited, our services include merchant payments, bulk payments, branchless banking, mobile banking, mobile VAS, and custom software development.

How FinTech Companies Help a Startup Grow?
FinTech companies develop technologies that allow business owners to manage and control actions like accepting payments, paying bills, and using other financial services to their advantage. Earlier with the lack of these technologies and other facilities provided by FinTech, startups didn’t have many ways to grow their businesses.

Furthermore, they only had banks as a source of capital which was used to look for the credibility and the scope of these companies in the future market. This made the process more complex and difficult for a company that is in its initial stage. With the FinTech solutions in the market, startups now have more options and ways in which they can work towards growth.

Importance of FinTech Companies
However, it is hard for startups to grow and make a reputation in today’s world with all the competition and a large number of startups launching every year. Hence, it is important for them to opt for ways that bring ease to their functioning and help them grow effectively/efficiently. FinTech companies play a major role in this. Mentioned below are some of the importance of the presence of FinTech solutions in the (modern) market;

• Anyone having an internet connection can access FinTech solutions all over the world
• FinTech solutions are comparatively cheaper than their counterparts
• Moreover, the usage of various technologies makes the process in a company automated
• Furthermore, these systems are flexible in nature as they do not demand too many documents and they provide lending to new and very small businesses
• Also, the use of modern technologies adds to the reason startups choose them
• Henceforth, FinTech companies provide a better customer experience

Conclusion
FinTech companies ease the process of managing a business by using automation technologies, less documentation, providing lending, expense tracking and invoicing, usage of various tools, and by providing a range of FinTech products and services. These services help startups to grow.

Yo! was the first company to launch and profitably operate a multipurpose mobile payments aggregation service in Uganda, Yo! Payments, in 2010, and has continued to be at the forefront of developing financial technology solutions for business.

Through its Yo! Payments platform, the company provides full support for Mobile Money services including integrations with several banks, utilities, and customers wishing to make and accept payments through all mobile networks currently active in Uganda. Apart from mobile money, other mobile platforms leveraged include SMS, USSD, and IVR enabling businesses to accept payments through Point of Sale devices, Mobile Applications (Apps), and web transactions.

Yo! Uganda offers a range of services which include the following;

Merchant Payments
In Uganda and across the world, online payments, and credit and debit card payments are becoming popular every other day, while cash and checks are continually decreasing in value. A merchant or any payment system that allows account holders to accept payments in numerous ways (usually debit or credit cards) can help you add value to your business.

We enable businesses of all sizes to securely accept Mobile Money payments for their goods and services through any channel of their choice, depending on their needs. Several hundreds of merchants rely on us for the Mobile Payments processing.

Bulk Payments
A bulk payment is a system that allows a company/individual to make debit payments to multiple beneficiaries. For instance, payouts. Meanwhile, a bulk list is the list of beneficiaries that the creditor intends to pay from a single account. The creditor’s bank statement reflects this bulk transfer as a single payment.

Fintech players like Yo! Uganda have more user-friendly solutions for bulk payment processing. They are faster, highly scalable, and offer higher security. Many businesses use bulk payments on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Numerous organizations are using our Bulk Payments service to securely and conveniently disburse funds directly to the mobile money wallets of multiple beneficiaries. Our platform supports some of the most sophisticated security features.

Branchless Banking
We are enabling Financial Institutions to reduce costs by accepting deposits from their customers directly from their Mobile Money wallets as well as transmitting withdrawals directly to their Mobile Money wallets.

Mobile Banking
Now more than ever, it’s essential to be able to conduct some tasks remotely, such as banking, instead of visiting a physical location. So, whether you are new to mobile banking or not, chances are you can learn something from this look at the benefits of mobile banking.

Financial institutions using our Mobile Banking product are realizing numerous benefits such as reduced cost of engagement, additional revenue streams, and increased customer loyalty.

Mobile VAS (SMS, USSD, IVR)
Value Added Services (VAS) refer to the non-core services offered in the telecom sector. All services apart from standard voice calls and fax transmissions are considered VAS. These services can be used to promote an operator’s primary business.

VAS spurs mobile subscribers to increasingly use their mobile devices in order to allow the operator to pull up their average revenue per user.

For more than 10 years, hundreds of organizations in and outside Uganda have relied on our stable, dependable, and scalable SMS, USSD, and IVR aggregation services to power country-wide and localized for-profit and social campaigns.

Custom Software Development
Custom software development is the process of designing, creating, deploying, and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions, or organizations.

Innovation is our lifeblood. We never shy away from the challenge of creating the status quo or inventing the next “state of the art”. We actively seek opportunities to assert our status as the leading innovators in Uganda.

Yo! Payments offers a rich API that enables seamless integration with websites, IVR services, SMS services, and any other medium through which businesses interact with their customers. Yo! Payments also offer an “internal transfer” service that enables account holders to cheaply transfer funds amongst each other.

Yo! Payments’ mission is to interconnect all mobile money providers and financial institutions WORLDWIDE, and provide Yo! Payments account holders with a unified method of receiving payments from any customer subscribed to any mobile money service provider or financial institution. What this means is that we intend to enable a Yo! Payments account holders to receive payments from their customers using MTN Mobile Money of MTN Uganda, M-PESA of Safaricom Kenya, or M-PESA of Tanzania, as well as send funds to mobile money subscribers of any network.

Yo! Payments opens the door for all types of businesses to benefit from the highly successful mobile money phenomenon. Start receiving mobile money payments for your services TODAY!

There are 3 simple steps to becoming a Yo! Payments account holder, as below:

• Go to the Yo! Payments Website
• Accept the Service Terms
• Sign Up for an account.

Having completed the signup process, you are ready to transact with your Yo! Payments account! Note that by default, after completing the signup process, a Personal Account shall be created for your use automatically. You may upgrade your account to a Business Account by uploading scanned copies of the following documents to your account using the “Upload Document” feature in your account. Below is the list of documents required:

• Scanned Copy of your Business’ Certificate of Incorporation or Equivalent Legal Document
• Scanned Copy of a Proof-of-Address Document, in your Business’ name. For example, you may upload a recent utility bill (Electricity or Water) or your Trading License, if it indicates the location of your premises
• Scanned Copy of Company Form 7 Clearly showing a list of Directors and their Addresses.
• Signed letter on your company’s headed paper from the Managing Director authorizing use of the service (email payments@yo.co.ug for the draft)
• Ifyou require access to the API, a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) (email payments@yo.co.ug for the draft)
• BriefDescription of the Products and Services you intend to offer using the Business Account. For this, you may upload a PDF document with the information.

When done, send an email to the address payments@yo.co.ug. The subject of your email should be “Upgrade to Business Account”. Upgrade from a Personal Account to a Business Account takes no more than one business day.

• Ability to have multiple people authorize the bulk payment;
• Pause / Resume / Cancel an ongoing Bulk Payment;
• Full Audit Trail tracking creation and manipulation of
• Bulk Payment
• Detailed Reports in PDF format

Read more to learn about Yo! Payments advanced features available for account holders: https://paymentsweb.yo.co.ug/index.php/features

FINTECH INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Fintech is a portmanteau of the terms “finance” and “technology” and refers to any business that uses technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes. The term encompasses a rapidly growing industry that serves the interests of both consumers and businesses in multiple ways. From mobile banking and insurance to investment apps, fintech has a seemingly endless array of applications.

The industry is huge — and will continue to expand for years to come. One driving factor is that many traditional banks are supporters and adopters of the technology, actively investing in, acquiring or partnering with fintech startups because it is easier to give digitally-minded customers what they want, while also moving the industry forward and staying relevant.

WHAT IS A FINTECH COMPANY?
Fintech companies integrate technologies (like AI, blockchain and data science) into traditional financial sectors to make them safer, faster and more efficient. Fintech is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors, with companies innovating in almost every area of finance; from payments and loans to credit scoring.

How does fintech work?
Fintech is not a new industry, it’s just one that has evolved very quickly. Technology has, to some degree, always been part of the financial world, whether it’s the introduction of credit cards in the 1950s or ATMs, electronic trading floors, personal finance apps and high-frequency trading in the decades that followed.

The guts behind financial technology varies from project to project, application to application. Some of the newest advances, however, are utilizing machine learning algorithms, blockchain and data science to do everything from process credit risks to run hedge funds. In fact, there’s now an entire subset of regulatory technology dubbed “regtech” designed to navigate the complex world of compliance and regulatory issues of industries like, you guessed it, FinTech.

As fintech has grown, so have concerns regarding cybersecurity in the fintech industry. The massive growth of fintech companies and marketplaces on a global scale has led to increased exposure of vulnerabilities in fintech infrastructure while making it a target for cybercriminal attacks. Luckily, technology continues to evolve to minimize existing fraud risks and mitigate threats that continue to emerge.

FINTECH EXAMPLES & USES
FinTech uses
Though the industry conjures up images of startups and industry-changing technology, traditional companies and banks are also constantly adopting FinTech services for their own purposes. Here’s a quick look at how the industry is both disrupting and enhancing some areas of finance.

Banking
Mobile banking is a large part of the fintech industry. In the world of personal finance, consumers have increasingly demanded easy digital access to their bank accounts, especially on a mobile device. Most major banks now offer some kind of mobile banking feature, especially with the rise of digital-first banks, or “Neobanks”.

Neobanks are essentially banks without any physical branch locations, serving customers with checking, savings, payment services and loans on completely mobile and digital infrastructure.

Investment & Savings
Fintech has caused an explosion in the number of investing and savings apps in recent years. More than ever, the barriers to investing are being broken down. While these apps differ in approach, each uses a combination of savings and automated small-money investing methods, such as instant round-up deposits on purchases, to introduce consumers to the markets.

Payments
Moving money around is something FinTech is very good at. The phrase “I’ll send you the money now” is now a replacement for “I’ll pay you later.”. Payment companies have changed the way we all do business. It’s easier than ever to send money digitally anywhere in the world.

Conclusion
FinTech has totally changed how people carryout transactions and will continue to evolve overtime. Keep watch.

The benefits of mobile banking include:

1. Convenience: Check account balances, find ATM locations, transfer funds, and even deposit checks.
Timesaving: No longer need to visit a credit union location to perform the everyday tasks mentioned above.
2. Bank on the go: You don’t even need a desktop computer. Bank from the train, airport, or backseat of a cab.
3. Easy to monitor: Stay on top of daily transactions to protect against fraud.
4. Good for budgeting: With access to your money at your fingertips, you can check your balance before you spend and make sure you’re on track to meet budgeting goals.
5.Mobile deposit: Depositing checks is no longer a hassle. Simply use your smartphone camera and mobile app to take a picture of the front and back. Deposit processing times are the same as if you brought the check to a branch.
5.Apply for a loan: Need a credit card, personal loan, or car loan? No need to go to the branch when you can apply for financing through the mobile app.

Our Mobile Banking Services
Our Mobile Banking product enables Financial Institutions to offer their customers a means of accessing their bank accounts using their mobile phones. Our Mobile Banking product supports several banking operations including Balance Checks, Statement Requests, Funds Transfers, Transaction Alerts et cetera.

Our product is enabling financial institutions to realize numerous benefits including reduced cost of engagement, additional revenue streams, increased customer loyalty, and increased security through transaction alerts to mention but a few.

– Ability to have multiple people authorize the bulk payment;
– Pause / Resume / Cancel an on-going Bulk Payment;
– Full Audit Trail tracking creation and manipulation of Bulk Payments;
– Detailed Reports in PDF format

Read more to learn about Yo! Payments advanced features available for account holders: https://paymentsweb.yo.co.ug/index.php/features

For more than 10 years, hundreds of organizations in and outside Uganda have relied on our stable, dependable and scalable USSD services to power country-wide and localized for-profit and social campaigns.

What is USSD?
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as “quick codes” or “feature codes”, is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator’s computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network.

Many liken USSD to Short Message Service (SMS), but the two are very different. SMS’s can be stored on a phone and are not interactive, while USSD is interactive and cannot be stored. USSD, in simple terms, is a transaction while SMS is a message. USSD works in real-time, while SMS is merely a text message that is delivered to a mobile phone.

Benefits of USSD
1. Reduces operating costs when it works as a self-service application for your customers.
2. It works with just about every mobile phone.
3. Intuitive menu with real-time interactivity.
4. Two-way communication is up to seven times faster than SMS.
5. Does not require an internet connection or data to work.
6. Enhanced customer satisfaction when you give them the ability to serve themselves.
7. Works globally.
8. Very economical.

All in all, USSD works on just about any mobile phone, whether it’s a cheap, or expensive smartphone. It’s free for your clients to use, and cost-effective for businesses. It does not require data to work, and all it needs to operate is a connection to the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network.

From the above, it is clear that USSD solutions like Yo! Uganda provide several benefits to Telcos and businesses. These include creating two-way communication with customers, offering them more efficient services and methods of gaining information, maximizing customer reach, and enabling the effective targeting of customers. These elements positively enhance customer experience and service levels which significantly reduce customer churn and increase profitability. We expect to see this technology transform and evolve in the coming years, especially where emerging markets are concerned.

Yo! software not only enables agricultural companies to make digital payments but also record the quantity of produce delivered at each purchasing location in real time, and track cash payments.

Read on to learn about the projects we have worked on in diverse value chains including coffee, seed oil and dairy.

DOWNLOAD PDF OF YO! UGANDA’S WORK IN AGRIVALUE CHAINS: YoUganda-Agri-Digitization-Brochure Digital Paths (1)