The LHoFT Foundation has chosen ten African fintech firms to participate in CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa: Special Edition in Dubai, which aims to encourage financial inclusion-focused businesses.
CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa, developed by the LHoFT Foundation, aims to make a real difference in Africa’s financial inclusion by providing education, insight, and connectivity to participating firms, leveraging Luxembourg’s experienced ecosystem of entrepreneurs, finance professionals, and financial inclusion and impact specialists.
The Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs – Directorate for Development and Humanitarian Affairs is sponsoring this special edition of CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa in Dubai, with support from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion and other key strategic partners such as ADA, AFI, InFine, DIFC FinTech Hive, PwC, and others.
Expert speakers and mentors from Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates will support the selected firms in developing their businesses and achieving their inclusion goals over the course of the three-day programme, fostering synergies among them, their partners, sponsors, investors, microfinance institutions, and public financial institutions (PFIs).
Social Lender, which helps financial institutions offer financial services based on social reputation to underbanked individuals; MamaMoni, which provides micro-loans for low-income female entrepreneurs; and Halal Payment, an all-inclusive digital payments service platform leveraging on the Islamic banking system to provide shariah-based financing for SMEs, are three of the selected startups from Nigeria.
eAgro, which utilises data analytics and machine learning to build low-cost financial credit solutions customised to the requirements of unbanked and underserved farmers, and VIRL Rural & Social Financial Services, which provides loans to smallholder farmers, micro and small firms, are both from Zimbabwe. eMaisha Pay, a mobile platform that uses machine learning, alternative data, and psychometric characteristics to credit score SMEs, and International Airtime Top Up, which provides airtime, money transfers, and cash pick-up solutions to and from African corridors, are two more Ugandan companies.
Ghana’s Motito, a “buy now, pay later” platform that offers interest-free credit at the point of sale; South Africa’s Akiba Digital, an alternative scoring platform that supports credit for small enterprises; and the Ivory Coast’s Damansah round out the group.
“We are excited to deliver our Catapult programme in Dubai, working with incredible local partners such as the DIFC and Fintech Hive as well as our key Luxembourg sponsor, The Directorate for Development and Humanitarian Aid. We have an incredible lineup of participants picked from over 130 applications, and we look forward to working with them and learning about their businesses. This is a great demonstration of international collaboration between the UAE and Luxembourg, and we believe all mentors and stakeholders involved will benefit from the ecosystems coming together through the Catapult programme,” said Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT.
