HiPipo

Hamwe East Africa Limited is bridging the gap between Farmers and the Digital Economy. #40Days40FinTechs Season 5, Day 36. Interaction between AgriTech and FinTech is key to ensuring that Farmers can benefit more from Agriculture. Well as AgriTech focuses mainly on introducing technology in to agriculture, integration with FinTech (financial technology) moves this a notch higher as it doesn’t only make farmers adopt technology for farming but also ensures that they are able to transact – make and receive payments from the comfort of their farms. It is this interaction that Hamwe East Africa is spearheading. Started as an AgriTech in 2013, Hamwe has over the years transformed into an AgriTech – FinTech; all for the benefit of farmers. “We work with underserved farmers in off the grid areas of Uganda and East Africa. Well as everybody else tried to work with Farmers in peri-urban areas and central region, for us, we decided to go to areas were farmers lack services such as internet access. These are the actual smallholder farmers that need support,” Stella N. Lugalambi, a co-founder and managing director of Hamwe East Africa noted. She added: “We build a farmer management system that enables farmers get a farming system, digital identity and economic identity. We are giving smallholder farmers an identity that allows them to access finance because they will have a system with credible data to prove that they actually earn and can afford to manage this finance.” Hamwe is active in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi with plans to expand to the rest of East Africa in the near future. “To date, we have over 400,000 farmers in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. We are planning to go to Kenya and Tanzania and grow our numbers to one million farmers by 2025. The beginning was a bit difficult but now we onboard more farmers easily because we know what to do. Even farmers are also adapting easily.” Lugalambi noted that they offer a complete agriculture support service. Hamwe East Africa’s bundled services to the over 400,000 farmers include farmers’ profiling, assessing farmers’ needs, identifying off takers, connecting farmers to inputs suppliers and ready markets, agronomy services, crop insurance, payments and access to credit. “Majority of our members come from cooperatives. Our work is coordinated by digital community entrepreneurs that support between 100 to 300 farmers. The digital community entrepreneurs (DCE) talk to farmers at the last mile because we get them from the same community where the farmers come from so they can easily engage and support them. The DCEs report to Territory Executives at the district level,” she said. MORE DETAILS: https://lnkd.in/dG2kvZsb #LevelOneProject #IncludeEveryone || Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Mojaloop Foundation Ideation Corner INFITX Crosslake Technologies Innocent Kawooya John Mark Ssebunnya Neeza Charlotte Doreen Nanfuka Joseph Kimbowa Nicholas Kalungi Kasakya George NG FILMS .

Our AVP, Global Expansion & Payment Partnerships - East Africa Arnold Kwesiga MBA spoke to HiPipo for their #40Days40FinTechs initiative. They discussed Flutterwave's role in helping businesses embrace e-commerce as a reliable way of trading offering by providing reliable payment methods, support and resources for them to thrive. Watch the full video 👇 https://lnkd.in/dUbkRXtQ

How should we address ethical issues and algorithmic bias when developing AI solutions for the community? Check out the full episode "AI for Impact: Building AI Solutions in Africa with Essa Mohamedali" on our Finance and Future Tech YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/d8MdwDUJ Listen to the Finance and Future Tech Podcast here: https://lnkd.in/drXCZbzw #financeandfuturetech #AI #FFTpodcast

How should we address ethical issues and algorithmic bias when developing AI solutions for the community? Check out the full episode "AI for Impact: Building AI Solutions in Africa with Essa Mohamedali" on our Finance and Future Tech YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/d8MdwDUJ Listen to the Finance and Future Tech Podcast here: https://lnkd.in/drXCZbzw #financeandfuturetech #AI #FFTpodcast

We’re not chasing medals—we’re saving lives! HiPipo, in partnership with Gifftid and My Doctor, is building 15 clinics across Uganda to bring healthcare services to underserved communities. Together, we can create a healthier and stronger Uganda! #IncludeEveryone #MyDoctor Innocent Kawooya Joseph Kimbowa Kasakya George Doreen Nanfuka

MoneySent is simplifying Money Transfers and Payments. #40Days40FinTechs Season 5, Day 35. The platform enables its users to send and receive money from anywhere in the world in addition to supporting payments such as Water Bills, Electricity Bills, Pay TV, and Tax Payments. https://lnkd.in/exzsdW9j #LevelOneProject #IncludeEveryOne

#40Days40FinTechs Season 5, Day 34: Her Duuka is Empowering Women-Led MSMEs Through E-Commerce. More than 1000 MSMEs have received Digital Training while 600 have been on boarded onto this platform. The on boarded 600 businesses currently own digital stalls and are selling their merchandise to the rest of the World. Watch for Details. https://lnkd.in/eDTVCavZ #LevelOneProject #IncludeEveryOne

iSOKO is supporting over 80,000 Informal Cross Border Traders. #40Days40FinTechs Initiative Season 5, Day 33. Informal cross border trade is one of the oldest forms of trade across Africa. It employs millions of people majority of them being women and youth. Research carried out by the African Development Bank (AfDB) shows that cross-border trade is a source of income to millions of people across the African continent. Uganda alone has thousands of informal cross border traders plying their trade in border towns such as Malaba, Busia, Mutukula, Elegu, Katuna, Mirima, and Goli. However, majority of these traders are faced with several challenges such as lack of market information, absence of interoperable payment platforms, counterfeits and fake money, and cases of mistreatment at the borders. Nonetheless, innovators, government and development partners are working to mitigate, somewhat put an end to these issues. One way they are doing this is through developing digital platforms to support this kind of trade. Among such platforms being used by cross border traders in Uganda is iSOKO. “In 2016, Trademark Africa conducted a research on why informal women cross border traders where losing a lot of money while conducting their business. This research revealed that the women traders were losing money due to lack of market information. That is how iSOKO came about with letter I standing for digital or internet and Soko meaning shop. So, Isoko simply means a digital/online shop,” MWESIGWA ROGERS , MBA the ICT Technical Assistant for iSOKO, Uganda Chapter explained the genesis of this platform. He added: “But on top of providing the traders with information, iSOKO also added more modules including the market module that enables traders to display and sell their products from wherever they are. As of today, iSOKO is being used in five countries – Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. There is a plan to expand Isoko allover Africa with focus on the countries that Trademark Africa has presence in so that Africans can have an online shop that allows them to trade with in two or more states.” Mwesigwa noted that iSOKO APP is downloadable on Google Play after which a trader can register and start trading in addition to accessing relevant trade facilitation information. MORE DETAILS: https://lnkd.in/dEb4kNda #LevelOneProject #IncludeEveryone || Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Mojaloop Foundation Crosslake Technologies Ideation Corner INFITX Innocent Kawooya Nicholas Kalungi Neeza Charlotte Joseph Kimbowa Kasakya George John Mark Ssebunnya NG FILMS . iSOKO Kenya

Congratulations to Paula Hunter on being nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Women in Tech® North America Awards! Paula is one of the five finalists, and we'll learn who the winner is at the at the event on September 19, 2024. Learn more: https://brnw.ch/21wMpv9 WOMEN IN TECH ® Global

Been such a pleasure getting to know and work with HiPipo under the inspirational leadership of Innocent Kawooya, looking forward to Gifftid making a difference in healthcare entrepreneurship in Uganda and the continent.