Ensibuuko was founded in 2014 out of the desire to address a real problem that affects millions of people across Africa: the problem of poor banking infrastructure. Most banks are concentrated in urban centers and struggle to reach remote, rural communities.
Partially regulated microfinance organizations and savings groups (owned and operated by the communities themselves) are now filling the gap – providing affordable and relevant financial services to the most underserved. But they too struggle with inefficiencies resulting from reliance on traditional, paper-based systems.
Ensibuuko’s founder was raised in a remote farming village in Uganda – by a single mother. His family’s frustration in navigating a poor banking system to access a loan at the most critical time is why they do what they do.
They picked their office location to maximize their team’s efficiency, enjoyment, and customer satisfaction.
Ensibuuko operates a proprietary microfinance platform developed especially for African credit unions (SACCOs) and savings groups.
The software helps community-based microfinance entities automate their data, processes, and payments to become efficient in delivering financial services in their communities.
The platform is used by over 200,000 rural customers in Uganda and is available in Zambia, Tanzania, and Nigeria through partners.
How it Works
SACCO’S
A Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCO) is a democratic and member-owned cooperative organization that mobilizes funds from members by offering loans and providing savings. They are working to make SACCOs better and bigger.
Built as a cloud-based native microfinance management platform, it’s uniquely designed to help SACCOs and Lending companies go paperless and become more efficient by digitizing how they manage customer data and transactions.
Cloud-Based
Access your data, and serve your customers at your convenience. You don’t need to be at the office to work!
Savings & Loans
Full and flexible loan and savings modules. Launch new products quickly and easily.
Internet & Mobile Banking
Your customers can access their accounts through their internet and mobile banking channels.
Mobile Money
Integration with mobile money and SMS services. Allow your customers to apply for instant loans, view statements, see their balances, and receive SMS alerts on transactions.
Bank Integration
We bring the bank to you. Let your customers deposit or withdraw from their accounts through any of their partner banks. Perform automatic bank account reconciliations.
Integrated Accounting
Track expenses, payables, receivables, incomes, and inventory easily. Upload bulk schedules and let the software run your accounting for you.
Individuals & Groups
Track groups and their customers all in one place.
Inter Branching
You can now have better control and visibility over your branches and allow customers to be served at any branch of their choice.
Reports
They give you an extensive catalog of financial reports with data filtering export features.
User permissions
They let you define what a user can do in the system. Teller? give them only transaction permissions.
Customer support
They give excellent customer support with our teams always on standby to help.
POS integration
They allow you and your customer to deposit/withdraw through POS terminals at their convenience.
MOBIS
It is a set of banking solutions developed by Ensibuuko. SACCOs and Lenders, offer a cloud-based core banking system that digitizes all your operations and has the integrations you love.
For data migration, provide your data in the format you have it, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Their onboarding is always on standby for whatever services you might need to get you started as fast as possible.
Configuration
The time taken to configure and deliver training to you on Mobis depends on the size of your organization in terms of the volume of data to migrate, and the format in which the data is organized i.e in excel, on books, or in another MIS system.
For average SACCOs of 1000 customers and below, the implementation takes one (1) month. The average time that training on Mobis takes is 5 days. It could be longer or shorter.
Security
They have done everything reasonably possible to protect your data on our platform. Their servers are foolproof and they have no record of any of their customers’ data being tampered with.
They run daily backups and provide on-demand data backups at your premises, but this will be a special arrangement between them and your organization.
Lending Companies
Lending companies are privately owned, regulated financial entities that offer micro and medium size loans and sometimes accept deposits from the public.
They introduce lending companies to a new way of doing business, digitally.
Savings Groups
Savings groups also known as Village Savings and loans Associations (VSLAs) are community circles that meet regularly to collect savings and manage small loans.
They are helping these groups become more secure and prosperous by transitioning to being cashless and paperless.
Investment Clubs
Investment clubs are mutual groups of less than 100 people who pool funds with a common goal to invest in ventures they deem profitable.
They are introducing these clubs to modern tools they will love.
Founders
Gerald Otim
Gerald Otim is the Founder and CEO at Ensibuuko.
He attended Makerere University.
Investors & Funding Rounds
GSMA Innovation Fund, FCA Investments.
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion was set up to help address the key digital inclusion barriers that are preventing 3.4 billion people from adopting life-enhancing mobile internet services.
The fund was launched in April 2020 with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Deutsche Gesellschaft fȕr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the GSMA, and its members.
They received a total of 598 applications from start-ups and SMEs in 44 countries across Africa and Asia.
After a rigorous evaluation process followed by a selection from an independent panel of industry experts, they are now pleased to announce the nine grantees: Africa 118, Ensibuuko, Knowledge Platform, Navana Tech, ScholarX, The Orenda Project, Vceela, WidEnergy Ltd and Zonful Energy.
They are delighted to be supporting this extraordinary group of organizations that are committed to closing the mobile internet usage gap and delivering lasting impact to their local societies and economies.
In addition, Ensibuuko has raised a US$1 million funding round to help it scale at home and abroad.
Ensibuuko now plans to scale both within Uganda and into further international markets after securing US$1 million in funding from global impact investor FCA Investments.
The goal is to scale rural banking infrastructure and digital financial services to millions of customers in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Ensibuuko also gaining access to FCA Investments’ technical resources and a global network of partners.
The new raise brings total investment into Ensibuuko to US$1.6 million, with the startup having closed a pre-seed round in 2017 from a group of Canadian angel investors.
Ensibuuko also intends to make major improvements to its newer digital loan and microinsurance products, which target rural customers.
Main Competitors
Jaaims: This is the first fully automated trading app that analyzes, predicts, and makes calculated trades on your behalf 24/7.
ErisX: It specializes in the digital asset space that offers both spot and futures contracts on one platform.
Stobox: This is a top-tier turn-key tokenization service provider.
Related:
Africa118: Story, Founders, Investors & Funding Rounds