Maximising sales in emerging fintech industry

Fintech, otherwise known as financial technology, is an umbrella term for applying innovative technological concepts to products and services in the financial industry.

The largest Fintech sectors in Uganda include; banking infrastructure, investment and savings, lending, and markets. Mobile phone penetration in Uganda is at 49 percent. This reality has promoted financial inclusion for many Ugandans

As the global economy recovers from Covid, Fintech is playing a pivotal role in areas such as financial inclusion and opening the door to an increase in digital payments.

According to Deloitte, Fintechs in strategic partnerships with financial institutions, retailers, and government sectors across jurisdictions can help democratise financial services by providing essential financial services in a fair and transparent way to economically vulnerable populations.

A number of individuals worldwide lack access to a banking system. Fintechs will be central to efforts to integrate these people into the global banking system.

A greater part of the global economic and financial system is moving online, given the rising reliance on technology.  However, the burgeoning of rampant cyber-attacks lurks in the shadows and poses a significant threat to data protection which calls for Fintechs to be security conscious while designing their products and services.

Investment in data centres continues to grow across Africa with Raxio Group currently on pan-African expansion.

Features such as cyber security, fraud detection, data automation, cloud-based services, and other associated technologies should be integrated as a sustainability approach which subsequently poses the question;

As a service provider, how can you infiltrate the Fintech space to sell your product successfully?

The first step would be to become a member of a Fintech association. By becoming a member, you are acquainting yourself with the different needs and gaps within the Fintech space.

It could be anything from data centre needs such as collocation and cloud-based services to security needs such as cyber security services.

An example of a Fintech association in Uganda is the Financial Technologies Service Providers Association (FITSPA), an independent non-profit membership-based organization with up to 160 members.

Take all the necessary time to carefully understand how best you can plugin on these demands. In doing so, you have the upper hand in designing products and services that speak directly to these pain points which automatically places you above your competition.

Also interacting with other players in the industry, such as Fintech regulators. In order to support technology-enabled innovation in the financial services space, Bank of Uganda deemed it pertinent to ensure new, more flexible ways of engaging with the financial services industry. One of the options being the use of a Regulatory Sandbox Framework established pursuant to section 16 of the National Payment Systems Act, 2020.

This places you well ahead of your game as they will guide you on the necessary steps to undertake to operate. With large volumes of critical data in circulation, regulation is definitely a necessity.  Fintech is not only revolutionising financial services but also attracting major investment.

Ms Allen Najjuuko, Sales Manager, Raxio Data Centre