1. * GSMA
TECH INNOVATION UNLOCKS FINANCIAL
ACCESS FOR AFRICA
Launch of JUMO, the first African mobile-only money marketplace
Cape Town, 20
th
October 2015: JUMO, the company behind Africa’s first mobile
marketplace and one of the fastest-growing mobile fintech platforms in the world, has
launched its public brand today, with its website at www.jumo.world.
JUMO facilitates financial access through mobile wallets in a trust-based approach, with no
need for a bank account, physical infrastructure or collateral.
ACCESS, JUMO’s first product, powers accessible loans for African entrepreneurs, small
businesses and individuals, through a purely mobile-based transaction. The service is driven
by algorithms which assess mobile wallet and GSM usage to determine suitability for a loan,
and identify the best product available from a range of options. New products in development
include savings products and other working capital solutions for businesses.
Their unique data-driven loans process means that millions of people without a bank
account or a formal credit history now have the opportunity to access finance through their
mobile phones – something which has not been possible before.
The Cape Town and Nairobi-based organization, which separated from African financial
services company AFB earlier this year, comes to market working with large mobile networks
such as Airtel and MTN. JUMO has, to date, dispersed 4.9 million loans to 1.8 million
unique customers with active integrations across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda,
Zambia and Ghana.
Mobile wallets are the prevalent form of depositing and transferring money across Sub-
Saharan Africa. In fact, around 150 million adults in this region have mobile wallets*, while
only half that number have bank accounts. In Kenya, over half of adults access their money
through a mobile device, and this number is rapidly growing.
JUMO was launched by Andrew Watkins-Ball, the founder of AFB, and now exists as a
separate business entity. The Cape Town and Nairobi offices have attracted a concentration
of data and technology pioneers from across Africa, including engineers and Data Scientists
from Amazon, Google and GE.
Andrew Watkins-Ball said, “Our mission is to put great financial choices in peoples hands,
everywhere, whenever they want them. In emerging markets, it is the mass market that is
excluded. We have built a sharing platform, allowing us to connect businesses and people
without infrastructure constraints .”
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