Access to financial services such as banking, insurance, borrowing, formal saving among others still remains a service enjoyed by few who have access to financial institutions mainly in urban centers. Well as commercial banks have tried to set up presences in rural areas, they are constrained by operating costs and as a result some end up closing. Jacqueline Musitwa the Executive Director of Financial Sector Deepening Uganda explained why FINTECHS are important in financial inclusion. “Banks have been there for a while, it’s a bit harder to change the processes but for FINTECHS they can explore new models of revenue. Besides lending, what else can you do? Can they go into saving, can they go into invoicing for products in trade. So I think there is a huge opportunity to expand business models like we have never seen before.” Said, Jacqueline Musitwa – Executive Director, FSD.

“We are going to see relationships where different financial service providers you know start work naturally with FINTECHS. And I think that FINTECHS certainly is going to be at the forefront of this.” Said, Otim Gerald – FINTECH Expert. “I do think there is an opportunity for Ugandan banks to equally understand what Ugandan FINTECHS are doing and where they see they are not strong in their area rather than starting it from scratch. There is an opportunity to acquire and so my hope is that in the next couple of years we will see a lot more acquisitions of FINTECHS.” Said, Jacqueline Musitwa – Executive Director, FSD.

This technology is however not limited to the internet but can also be used on phones which do not have access to the internet just to ensure that no one is left out. “In recognizing where the population is, we don’t only focus on FINTECHS that are reliant on smartphones, it really is to provide access to everyone and so all of this support that we have provided so far has to go to FINTECHS to assess the application as well.” Said, Jacqueline Musitwa – Executive Director, FSD.