Uganda’s first micro-pension service and e-wallet platform, Four One Financial Services has emerged winner of the Best Catapulter Award at CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa. This is after a week-long training and networking bootcamp on financial inclusion organised by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).
"When you realize that your failure might mean someone living in poverty, perhaps for the rest of their lives, you have no choice but to succeed," – @MukasaMulya
Four One Financial Services Takes Award at #CatapultAfrica:
➡️https://t.co/7LpJLysT1D#FinancialInclusion #Fintech pic.twitter.com/JvifAsAvgF— Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (@The_LHoFT) November 14, 2018
Founded in 2016, the startup through its micro-pension service provides access to health insurance and other savings products to Ugandans. Four One Financial Services ousted 10 other fintech startups during the final pitch session and networking event with its innovation. Doing so, the startup claimed the grand prize of €5000, a ticket to Slush, and an entry to the African Microfinance Week at the School of African Microfinance (SAM).
The LHoFT has run its CATAPULT program for the second year in a row. This year, the programme was targeted at Fintech companies dedicated to finance inclusion in Africa with a plan to evolve the continent in terms of finance and technology. It received 128 applications from which it selected 14 fintech startups. But only 11 were able to attend the bootcamp.
These selected startups were Akaboxi Limited, Four One Financial Services and Vouch Digital Limited from Uganda. Akiba Digital and Inclusivity Solutions from South Africa. Bitvalley and Koosmik Corp from Luxembourg. Nala from Tanzania. Matontine Senegal from Senegal. Oko from Isreal. and Ovamba Solutions from United States.
The 3 that were selected but could not attend include: SmartTeller LTD, Nigeria; WeCashUp, Cameroon/France; and Refuge Network, Malta.
The selected startups attended a bootcamp which covered a range of topics including business model mapping, scaling strategies, peer due diligence processes, investability, business plan presentation, legal strategy, HR policy and marketing strategy.
Speaking about the programme, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT Foundation said, “The program exceeded the objectives we had and, most importantly the participants’ feedback confirmed that we had succeeded in adding real value. We believe we have helped to ensure these businesses are better placed to scale and deliver real impact in relation to financial inclusion. We very much look forward to continuing to engage with the firms and monitor their progress.“
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