It is common knowledge that FinTech is currently one of the highly rated technology sectors with Yo! Uganda Limited among those reshaping the financial industry.

FinTech possesses a great potential to completely transfigure the financial sector. Some of the top industry progressions include payments and lending. However, there are numerous opportunities that can be realized. Below is an absolute list of four FinTech opportunities that entrepreneurs and businesses can use to their advantage.

1. Mobile Payments and Transfers
FinTech provides transparency and low cost that most of the bank transactions lack, payment processing has seen significant growth over the last years. Due to the potential growth of eCommerce and mCommerce, it is likely that there will be a massive increase in the number of people who will be making payments using their smartphones. Be it a mobile payment system (Stripe), a hardware device that can process credit card payments (Square), or alternative money transfer service (Transferwise), any product that meets the need for cheaper, faster and easier payments processing has a great potential. Moreover, the fact that giant companies like Apple, Google use mobile payments, speaks for itself.

2. Better Ways to Use Financial Data
The advance of Big Data and predictive analytics continues to revolutionize the finance industry. Many stablished financial institutions in East Africa are currently looking for the new ways to apply the data they have accumulated over the decades.

Actionable business insights, sourced with the help of the innovative technologies, is what major enterprises use to keep up with the challenges industry disruptors are setting. Thus, their interest in advanced analytics and big data finance startups (Context Relevant, Kensho Technologies, Dataminr, and Antuit) is easy to explain. This also means great chances for successful acquisition for a number of other B2B FinTech projects.

3. Personal Finance and Banking
With the rise of FinTech, you don’t need a degree in business or finance to do your accounts. There are lots of great tools on the market, offering online banking, automatic budgeting, financial planning, and asset management services. Some financial institutions are undisputed leaders in personal finance where they allow their users to keep track of bank accounts, credit cards, investment, loans, and transactions, all within a single app. However, there is still substantial opportunity for better, smarter personal finance and banking.

4. Simplified Investing with AI Advisors
Similar to banks, markets and exchanges are experiencing significant digitization. Another trend that emerges in this area is the “robo-advisors”. They combine smart algorithms and human touch to help the users make better investment decisions. As machine learning and AI technologies currently gain momentum, this tendency is yet to see widespread adoption. Automated and personalized service, deep data-backed insights, and smarter financial decisions are just several possibilities that these intelligent algorithms open up for FinTech.

Final Word
In 2015, the FinTech investment increased by 106 percent, reaching $13.8 billion globally. The numbers sound even more impressive when compared to $2.1 billion in industry funding raised in 2011.

With more regulatory freedom, advanced technologies, and innovative business models, opportunities in FinTech still have a strong potential. While both established financial institutions and emerging startups strive to seize the moment and get their piece of the FinTech pie, the market will continue to expand in 2022 and years to come.

In as much as this causes uncertainty for traditional banking, one thing that’s sure is that FinTech is here to stay. Yes, you read that right.

It is quite essential that companies understand the importance of implementing digital finance solutions to improve efficiency, service, and, ultimately, profitability. Below, we unravel the FinTech trends that are changing the face of finance forever.

1. Mobile Payments
Today, consumers don’t rely so much on physical cash as much as they used to. People now prefer instant, convenient modes of payment which exist largely in mobile banking.

A couple of companies, in fact, multimillion / billion companies are already making use of this mode of payment. Imagine these companies paying attention to mobile banking, you definitely have to get involved.

By offering easy-to-use mobile payment services, you can increase your market capitalization. Also, consumers have been conditioned to expect a few business days between requesting withdrawals from their digital wallets into their bank accounts.

This provides you with the chance to earn interest on those consumers’ funds in the interim.

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving.

Majority of financial companies are implementing and reconditioning their AI solutions, simplifying the extraction of information from their customers on a singular clamber.

The resultant effort will be introducing customized services to your customers, generated by a faster and more in-depth analysis only a machine can perform.

3. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate humans’ actions interacting with digital systems and software. Just like people, software robots can do things like understand what’s on a screen, complete the right keystrokes, navigate systems, identify and extract data, and perform a wide range of defined actions. But software robots can do it faster and more consistently than people, without the need to get up and stretch or take a coffee break.

RPA is akin to a software robot, in that companies have a 24-hour digital worker that doesn’t make mistakes. They will only do what they are programmed to do.

This technology will, in fact is already having an impact on the financial sector as companies are using RPA to save time wasting by automating much of their business processes.

For instance, you can code it to manipulate applications to emulate how a human being uses an app. Doing this can help with error testing before launching your digital products to consumers.

Conclusion
Now that you know the most important financial technology trends, you need to keep an eye on the future. That way, you can position your company to get the most out of this evolving technology and adapt to consumer demands

Among the provisions of the National Payment Systems Act, 2020 is a requirement for all payment system operators to apply for and qualify for licensing after having satisfied a meticulous process applied by the Central Bank.

The National Payment Systems Act, 2020

The National Payment Systems Act, 2020 followed the National Payment Systems policy which was approved by the Cabinet of Uganda in December 2017. The policy put in place the framework around which the Payment System Law was enacted.

The National Payment Systems (“NPS”) Act was passed by Parliament in May 2020, and assented to by the President on 29^th July 2020 and is therefore the law governing and regulating payment systems in Uganda.

Mobile Money was first launched in Uganda in 2009 and has since been the main digital financial services platform. As well as the mobile money service providers, players in the mobile money network include issuers of payment instruments and issuers of electronic money. Although the industry was previously regulated through the Mobile Money Guidelines of 2013, passing of this law was aimed at increasing the safety and efficiency of payments systems operations by providing a legal basis to ensure compliance from all service providers and operators.

“At Yo!, we see the passing of the NPS Act, 2020 and the grant of our license by Bank of Uganda as a major validation and endorsement of our innovative and then-futuristic Payment Gateway service, Yo! Payments, that we pioneered back in 2010.” says Gerald Begumisa, Managing Director and Founder of Yo!.

“We are very thankful to our customers for trusting our service right from the start. We also consider ourselves fortunate to operate in an environment where the regulator, Bank of Uganda, has taken an approach to establish regulations and guidelines which allow new innovations time to grow and thrive”, he adds.

What this means for Yo!

Being regulated under the auspices of the Bank of Uganda within the prescripts of a license means that every customer transacting via the Yo Payments platform can do so with a new level of TRUST. The license merely validated Yo!’s impeccable track record with regards to the security and reliability of its technical platforms.

The issuing of licenses means that going forward only licensed Payment Operators will be allowed to provide payment and aggregation services, which in turn will boost confidence in the market and allow the mobile money ecosystem to grow to fulfill its real potential.

Yo! looks forward to working with and integrating with the other licensed financial institutions in Uganda to further democratize the financial system in Uganda

About Yo!

Yo-Uganda Limited (“Yo!”), incorporated in January 2006, is a leading technology company based in Uganda. Yo! leverages various mobile platforms to deliver payments solutions to financial institutions, large and small businesses and individuals.

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 accept payments through Point of Sale devices, Mobile Applications (Apps) and web transactions.

Fintech in Uganda

Digital financial services present tremendous opportunities for the Ugandan business environment to provide high quality, reliable and affordable financial products and services. This is especially necessary for the large number of unbanked and underbanked people whose access to financial services is impeded by the limited spread of banks across the country.

In a recent announcement, Yo! unveiled plans to reach out to and include 300,000 farmers across Uganda into the digital ecosystem through a $250,000 grant partnership with United States African Development Foundation (USADF) and Mastercard, Inc.

“Initiatives such as our digital agriculture solution are important in achieving financial inclusion for more Ugandans,” said Lawrence Totimeh, Head of Business and Service Delivery at Yo! “With the regulatory environment instilling more confidence to the consumer, we shall have greater participation and willingness for more people to take advantage of digital financial services and move away from the riskier cash based transactions.”, he adds.

The “Bank-Format” statement is different from the standard detailed statement in the following ways:

1. Bulk Payments and associated charges are represented as a single Debit off your account;

2. Stand-alone transactions and associated charges are represented as single entries (combining transaction amount and charges into a single credit or debit)

This dramatically reduces the number of pages of the statement, should your processes require a printed copy of the statement.