HOW UGANDA IS EMBRACING MOBILE TRANSACTIONS DURING THE PANDEMIC
By Eleni Giokos, CNN
Reports from Uganda shows that mobile money
transactions totalled nearly five billion dollars in
the last quarter of 2019.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,
Uganda has embraced the digitalisation of the
economy. In a society traditionally run by cash,
people across the country have flocked to e-
commerce platforms for contactless payments
and purchases. Xente Tech is one of the firms
providing these essential services.
In an interview with Giokos, Xente Tech CEO
Allan Rwakatungu explains the initial
challenges in getting customers to convert,
“Before the pandemic, we honestly had a bit of
a struggle, convincing businesses, the need for
them to go digital as a matter of priority. A lot
of them were still getting most of their sales
and still would get most of their sales from
walking customers who pay cash. But now they
realise that it is an emergency. They need to
move now.”
As coronavirus lockdown restrictions began
impacting businesses across Uganda, Xente
Tech saw a huge jump in growth, with
companies from every sector looking to use
their platform. Rwakatungu discusses how the
business model works,
“Buyers go to Xente and they have access to
now over 40,000 different products, everything
from ad time to groceries, to fashion, to
electronics, they can buy from that marketplace
and they can pay instantly using mobile wallet
or their bank.”
One of the companies that approached Xente
Tech was medical supplier Rocket Health.
Managing Director Davis Musinguzi speaks
about the collaboration,
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people
have been relying on ecommerce to get
essential services delivered to them. Xente has
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of
users, and what we are now is making all of
those healthcare services available for people
on their platform. So, we’ve seen a 500 percent
rise in the number of people that rely on
telemedicine and ecommerce purchases for
healthcare services.”
The coronavirus crisis has provided a unique
opportunity for traditional economies to pivot
towards digitalisation. Companies like Xente
Tech are using the situation to drive their own
business while facilitating change across the
economy.
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