ICT minister underscores role played by fintech in supporting financial services

The State Minister for ICT, Joyce Nabbosa Ssebuggwawo has said the role played by fintech in supporting financial services in the country cannot be underrated by anyone.

“It is pretty clear globally that fintech is playing an outsized role in disaggregating the financial services value chain in fundamental ways, making it more customer centric, nimble and efficient,” Ssebuggwawo.

The minister was speaking as chief guest at a function where Digital Adverts Limited, one of the fastest growing fintech companies that aims at enhancing financial inclusion through making products and services available and affordable to all people celebrated its first anniversary in business.

The minister likened fintech to a Swiss army knife which incorporates several blades and other tools such as scissors and screwdrivers.

“It is a magic tool that subscribers use to get many things done. With technology, the applications are being used by providers attacking the maddening inefficiencies in financial services delivery – finding vulnerabilities around risk, cost and customer experience that have made transactions seamless. What it means for me is that I can now piece together the best set of services for me, in a new and convenient way.”

The Chief Executive Officer for Digital Advert Limited, Martin Musinguzi described starting the company as a dream come true.

“This is a dream that I got about six years and it gives me total happiness and inner satisfaction that today, we are celebrating a year in business. God has seen me through all this time. Special thanks go to all the management team that has walked with me all this way,”Musinguzi said.

“The company has an application which acts as a special purpose vehicle to enable online merchants and clients trying to grow revenue at anytime and anywhere. We are here to disrupt technology and the advertising industry but also, make advertising less costly to all the businesses in Uganda and the world at large because we are on Google play and Apple store which are all accessed worldwide.”

He added that the company is also soon unveiling the E-Commerce platform where people can purchase goods at a subsidized price in order to ease the way of doing business in the ever-changing economy in the world.

Speaking at the event, Babirukamu John a digital marketing consultant noted that “Ugandans using the internet grew to 13.9m in January 2022, a rise by 31% since 2020, with a population growth of 3.02%. At this rate, half our population will be online by 2035,”

“With a combined drop in data prices and smartphone prices, access will switch to getting people online, to enabling services for the online. I can guarantee you that taxes, application for everything, banking and payments will become virtual, reflecting on the revolution currently in Kenya,”Babirukamu  opined.