Tech in Africa
Kwara has placed permanent regional representatives across Western, Rift Valley, Central, and the Coastal regions of Kenya. The company offers digital banking platforms that transform existing credit unions and savings cooperatives into modern and digital financial institutions. The company currently serves over 50 credit unions worldwide and is further targeting a broader scope of SACCOs.
Cynthia Wandia, the CEO of Kwara said the new drive will “deepen our side-by-side collaboration with SACCOs by investing even more resources countrywide.”
As part of this launch, the fintech company held regional town halls across Mombasa, Meru, Eldoret, and Bungoma, attracting hundreds of participants. The town halls were intended to introduce Kwara in a personalized, open session way. The Sacco staff, District Cooperative Officers, and SACCO members interacted with Kwara’s team on several issues experienced last year. Among the issues were COVID challenges, lack of affordable systems, and inconsistent vendor support.
During Covid-19, many SACCOs in Central, Western, and Coastal Kenya had a number of members unable to visit their Sacco branches and apply for loans. Mobile baking was shared as a key product solution to these challenges. Loan uptake among Kwara’s existing clients through the mobile app has risen by 300%. Sacco representatives shared that they wanted to give members control over loan applications and balance inquiries via the phone, allowing the staff to instead focus on growing their membership and creating value through the use of innovative financial products. Participants also discussed the importance of cloud-based solutions – especially those that are subscription-based.
Vendor support posed a major challenge to Saccos digitizing their operations. Many had to shelve their SACCO management systems as a result of inconsistent or lack of technical vendor support from attendants. Kwara further pointed out that their cloud-based subscription model means continuous product improvement and cost-free support for their customer success team.
Kwara is backed by leading global investors and accelerators among them Google for Startups, Norrsken Impact Accelerator, Catalyst Fund, and Mastercard Start Path. You can find out more about Kwara at www.kwara.com
