Spending a day or a week at home for lack of school fees is something that no parent would wish their child to experience. Due to various challenges, however, parents find themselves stranded with their children who have been sent back home to collect fees.
To support such parents, however, E-Moments, a multi-business company that does events management, set up a payments business Application dubbed Pesajet, which, among others, offers a School Advance solution that seeks to aid the school fees challenges.
According to E-Moments Limited Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Emily Sonia Nakabuye, the solution offers low-interest loans to parents to pay their children’s school fees to avoid inconveniences.
Pesajet also offers services in agriculture and utilities, among others. As part of the company’s women empowerment agenda, women enjoy lower loan interest rates compared to men.
“If men take out loans at 5% interest rate, women will be charged 3%,” Nakabuye says.
She adds that Pesajet seeks to include everyone by ensuring that their loans are accessible and affordable for both men and women.
Pesajet uses technology such as Java, API programming, and Mojaloop. Nakabuye notes that they are also encrypting Mojaloop with the open-loop systems so that everyone is able to transact cheaply, irrespective of the digital financial service provider they are using.
Additionally, she says that Pesajet is also using the Account lookup service provided by Mojaloop and notifications to enable people to get updates about Pesajet or get transaction alerts through SMS. Nakabuye notes that Pesajet is also working on smoothening its user interface and make it accessible and easy to all users.
“We have heard statements like wow! Their application is really nice; it is very easy to use, I would recommend it to anyone. That is the feedback we want to get from our customers when they use our application,” Nakabuye notes.
She notes that Pesajet is a believer that low-cost user devices are key in driving financial inclusion, and notes that Pesajet is trying to ensure that its App is accessible, irrespective of the device one is using.
In a bid to ensure low cost, Pesajet is trying to make its App as affordable as possible so as to cater to the last-mile person. The Pesajet App can be downloaded from the Google Play store.
40-Days 40-FinTechs
E-Moments Limited, which was started during and also participated in last year’s Women in FinTech Hackathon, is among the firms participating in the ongoing second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs initiative, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.
Nakabuye expressed gratitude to HiPipo for the 40-Days 40-FinTechs program, which she says provides a platform for enhanced visibility to get more customers.
Additionally, she notes, it provides a platform for them to learn from the various FinTechs participating in the program by listening to the many great stories and getting many good ideas from industry stakeholders.
She, however, expresses concern that the FinTech industry is facing a number of challenges including fraud, high cost, and digital illiteracy.
Alluding to the numerous innovative ideas being showcased, the HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya notes that this year’s edition of the 40-Days 40 FinTechs is Uganda’s most comprehensive foray into things like distributed ledger technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Automated Customer Relationship Management, cash management, and lending platforms, among others.
He adds: “We need to be prepared with appropriate products and have the appropriate real-time payment systems in place to support an inclusive, interoperable digital marketplace that is both thriving and safe.”
