Inside Uganda’s emerging fintech ecosystem: A guide to start-up ventures
Glimmering among the emerging fintech industry in Uganda, a few entrepreneurs are offering services like cryptocurrency and blockchain-powered mobile wallets.
Blockchain is the technology supporting the decentralization of the Internet, the concept behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But there’s no universal definition of blockchain, so let’s clear up the confusion.
Cryptocurrencies are cryptocurrencies: they’re essentially digital money like Bitcoin.
As blockchain is an established technology, blockchain-powered mobile wallets are an emerging fintech sector in Uganda.
A few of these emerging businesses are offering services like cryptocurrency and blockchain-powered mobile wallets – and they’re already disrupting the fintech market in Uganda.
How Uganda is innovating fintech
In a country that has been at the forefront of financial technology (fintech), Uganda is now blazing a new trail.
The country is at an advantage because of the country’s low-cost manufacturing base, which makes it easier to access and produce financial products such as mobile money, virtual currency and debit cards.
Fintech is a sector that was born in the developed world, but is now being rolled out in rapidly developing markets like Uganda.
In this blog, we’ll explore some of the fintech companies set to disrupt Uganda’s financial services sector and provide solutions for the average consumer with fintech needs.
Fintech in Uganda in a nutshell
The fintech sector in Uganda has existed for some time, but the sector wasn’t defined, until recently.
The sector, however, is growing rapidly as the government is prioritizing education, innovation and access to financial services.
The fintech sector in Uganda (in terms of number of business) has grown more than eight times since 2014, when it was only 2
The sector has benefited from the global financial crisis because of the country’s low manufacturing base that makes it less expensive to produce these financial products.
Fintech has