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Software to fix financial interoperability
Mojaloop, a financial inclusion platform developed by ModusBox with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has entered the Ugandan market with developers optimistic that it will solve financial interoperability challenges, especially across the mobile money operators.
Mojaloop is open-source software for financial services companies, government regulators, and others taking on the challenges of interoperability and financial inclusion.
In West Africa; MTN and Orange Group are using it for a joint mobile money wallet product code-named MOWALI while Tanzania, at the start of this year, rolled out the Tanzania Instant Payments System (TIPS) fully supported by the same software.
Its entry into the Ugandan market comes on the back of recent mobile money glitches that made it impossible for MTN Mobile Money customers to send money to Airtel Money customers and vice-versa for over two months. Even though the standoff that both telecoms blamed on technical glitches has since been resolved, its impact on mobile money users for the two months was overwhelming.
Speaking at the Hack Mojaloop Developers workshop held at Design Hub Kampala early this week, Innocent Kawooya, the chief executive officer of HiPipo–the local partner spearheading the software’s adoption in Uganda, noted that Mojaloop, as a cross-network transactions enabling platform, will ease the needed investment by financial players with more volumes that will bring down transaction costs in a secure financial establishment.
“Financial inclusion for the poor deserves sustainable technology and business approaches to ensure financial services penetration covers everyone. The Open Source Community players, such as HiPipo, Modusbox, Crosslake are coming together to ensure that Africa at large and Uganda in particular, is at the forefront of financial inclusion.
Patrick Adengo, a digital-financial inclusion expert at Stalworth Consulting Group, said Mojaloop is a good way to combine all the key players in the inclusive finance industry.
The developers’ workshop is part of the Include EveryOne summit slated for today at Mestil Hotel Kampala. The summit is expected to attract over 200 participants from across Africa, to explore the strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of financial inclusion, digital, IT and business.
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