For long, Rwandans across the country have had different ways of coming together to make regular financial savings and contributing to common causes. These have often included putting away physical cash as savings as well as physically collecting money during contributions. These has often been problematic as it could be marred by challenges such as inconvenience and lack of transparency. A Rwanda financial technology firm, Uplus Mutual Partners (U+) has a solution allowing people from all walks of life to connect on the platform to contribute and save for whatever causes they may be involved in. The application, Uplus Mutual Partners allows anyone and any organisation looking at a better way of raising funds and saving with their friends, family and colleagues. Edward Kirenga the Managing Director and Co-Founder of the platform said that Rwandans are increasingly saving money as groups for causes such as weddings, at higher learning institutions, at work places, religious groups, charity purposes as well as for prospective investments. However he noted that despite the increase in group savings and contributions, there is still heavy use and reliance on methods such as somewhat traditional methods ranging from depositing cash in wooden savings boxes, depositing cash in an account at a Sacco to sending mobile money to one trusted individual. Kirenga said that their solution has been tailored to address common challenges in traditional savings avenues such as limited convenience. For instance, he said that it is often slow and tedious collecting and distributing funds among a group of people. In the process, he said that they also wanted to have a smart alternative to managing, raising and distributing group funds, ensuring transparency. “We noticed that collective saving and financing lacked a tech solution that would make it easier, provide transparency and accountability to all members of the group. In addition, no smart phone apps were available that provided a robust financial platform. We intended on designing and building this platform to meet those market gaps. Banking and finance is moving towards the mobile platform,” Kirenga said. The platform is available as an application (iOS and Android) that allows any group to save and collectively finance (from any mobile money solution) for social and economic growth. The start-up has been constantly working to improve its market offering since its debut in 2019 when it was only available on Android. Last year, it became available on both Android and IOS. By July this year, the Financial Technology firm aims at surpassing the 3000 users mark.
