Denis Opudo
On 6th November 2017, Mastercard launched Kionect. Kionect is a digital ordering system which helps small-scale retailers within Nairobi Kenya to order and pay for goods from dealers through SMS. The orders placed through a feature phone helps to create a digital record for retailers to get access to micro-loans to increase the stocks and grow their business.
The Kionect is presently being run by more than 1, 000 micro-businesses in three of the Nairobi slums that’s Kibera, Kariobangi, and Kawangware. The initiative is in partnership with Kaskazi which is a distributor and a wholesaler that works for profit. Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) which runs its operations in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda facilitates the digital payments between the retailer and the seller.
The technology from Mastercard offers a digital log transaction data that qualifies the retailers for loans to stock inventory from Musoni which is a regional micro-finance provider. The more discipline the retailer can pay the loan on time, the higher amount of loan the person can get in the next application and this will help the retailer in growing the business further. The micro-retailers are the bedrocks to their communities since they look for the supply required to keep people moving.
The technology was developed after a study which proved that getting goods, tracking inventory and access to flexible, short-term loans are the hardest things for a kiosk owner to get. It becomes so hard for most of the kiosk owners to be able to secure loans from banks and other financial institutions since the businesses depend on cash for daily operations hence there is lack of financial records. At the same time, there are no right ways on which the retailers can use to stock orders directly from the wholesalers making it hard to stock fast moving inventory.
