July: We’ve opened offices in Kenya & Nigeria + new partnerships, products and team members.
A busy 3 months at Pngme would be an understatement. Working with our customers has proven how our technology can address the broader shortcomings of financial ecosystems and the continued fallout from COVID-19, the team has been working hard to expand the scope of and implement our product for institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last month announced a financial inclusion target of 95%. This is a broad trend across African countries who see fintechs like Pngme as crucial to meeting targets. Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana have been swiftly updating regulations to meet the opportunity. We’re on the cusp of an industry transformation that will serve the financial needs of millions.
In 2019, we partnered with Readycash to issue the first agent e-float loans through the Pngme platform which have had an immediate impact on small business owners looking to expand and weather a downturn in footfall.“The process of getting support funds has been seamless compared to what I normally experience, the customer service is top notch” responded Michael Iheanacho (Readycash Agent in Nigeria) in a recent survey. The issuance of loans coincides with new team hires and office openings in Kenya and Nigeria (see bios below). We now have on-the-ground expertise to help fastrack implementation of our product and services with the right partners.
Alongside enabling FIs to provide loans to small businesses, we’re working with several financial institutions, helping them to build integrated products that will serve their existing customers and reach individuals completely cut off or underserved by traditional models (see partner announcements). These partners will be the first to integrate Pngme’s financial data platform and unified data API. We are one of a few technologies addressing both digital onboarding and alternative financial data access in the sub-Saharan Africa financial ecosystem and proud to partner with companies that share our vision of economic prosperity for all.
Read on for news on recent hires and links to partner announcements. If you have any questions, ideas or comments please feel free to email info@pngme.com….
New Hires
Emeka Madu — Director of Business Development, Nigeria
An experienced business development, digital payments, and transformation expert with an in-depth understanding of the African and Nigerian payments sphere. Emeka has over 15 years of experience and has worked for some of the largest financial and telco companies such as Ria, IDT, and MTN/Visafone. Emeka will be managing Pngme’s partnerships with banks, fintechs and MMO’s on the ground in Nigeria.
Janice Cañedo, PhD — Data Engineer
Janice will be working alongside Ratul Saha, PhD (Director of Engineering) on the creation and maintenance of multiple data pipelines and algorithms that allow Pngme to horizontally scale its backend and unified data API to process hundreds of thousands of unique data points on millions of users (no small task). An experienced graduate research assistant, Janice has worked in higher education, distributed databases, data analytics, machine learning, and cyber security.
Product & Site Developments
- New website with a cleaner, clearer interface highlighting our API and products leading to a simplified request/sign up form
- Customer dashboards and welcome modules are near completion for our various partners
- Form data collection and client loan modules in testing
- Unified Data APIavailable to partners for production testing
New Partnerships
Ethereum Classic Accelerator: Cohort III:
Since 2018, Ethereum classic has been providing technical support, project management, and funding for select blockchain and digital asset startups. Pngme joins cohort III which focuses on startups that support social, economic issues and female founders.
Open Banking Nigeria is a non-profit working to implement open API standards. As partners, Pngme will help design sandbox environments and other testing tools to ensure API development is inclusive, secure, and provides the best possible experience for consumers.
Simple Finance Nigeria (Simplefi): Founded in 2018, SimpleFi provides a broad range of digital financial services. Working with Pngme, they will expand their digital loan offering to individuals and mobile money agents in rural Nigeria.
Rigo Microfinance Bank: Pngme will support Rigo in the digitization of its loan issuance. Rigo customers will be able to apply and repay via an Android app, alleviating many issues created by COVID-19, specifically face-to-face interactions.
Blue Horizon MicroCredit BHM provides community-based credit and loans to salaried and public officials in Ghana. We will be working collaboratively across our data API and Android developer framework to increase access to capital for their customers.
Community Outreach
Our partner, Blue Horizon, organizes monthly donations for local causes. Earlier this year they worked with Akotokyir Anglican school which was in desperate need of essential supplies. Blue Horizon donated over $1,000 dollars worth of notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers and other materials that will see the school and its students supplied with materials well into next year.
Pngme will be donating laptops to equip the school’s ICT lab which currently does not have a functioning computer. We will continue to highlight and support our partners philanthropic efforts in the countries and regions where our partners are based.If you are interested in participating in this initiative please reach out to support@pngme.com.
What We’re Reading:
Pngme — Tracking Merchant Transaction for New Credit opportunities
Pngme — Open Bankingin Africa Part 1
Economist — State of Play: Fintech in Nigeria
Forbes — the future of Banking is Digital After Coronavirus
Deloitte Nigeria — Addressing The Financial Impact of COVID-19 in Nigeria
