Opareta

Mobile money agent businesses face challenges with effective liquidity management and low capital.  As such, they suffer from stunted growth despite, according to the 2019 GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, having 7 times the reach of ATMs and 20 times the reach of bank branches.

Our solution leverages AI-driven predictive analytics tools to not only provides simple business dashboards and management tips but also instant tailored float loans. 

At scale, we shall digitize mobile money agent businesses in emerging markets and enable them to engage in sustainable business growth. 

Mobile money agents are the main interface to financial services for majority of the population in emerging markets. Despite the key role they play in driving financial inclusion, it is difficult for most mobile money agents to predict and adapt to fluctuations in demand. It is tedious and time-consuming for them to rebalance as they lack real-time business performance reports. 

This challenge is exacerbated by limited options for investment capital as it takes time to accumulate savings to re-invest into the business. According the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2019, only 29% of mobile network operators provide lines of credit to agents despite how essential their services are, especially to women, youth and other financially excluded groups.

By empowering mobile money agents, especially those owned and run by women and youth, we shall not only empower them to grow their businesses but also deliver more inclusive financial services. 

Opareta is a mobile app that works on any Android smartphone. It enables mobile money agents to transact faster with fewer errors so that they can earn higher commissions. In addition, we use data science and machine learning to deliver simple business reports, track the liquidity position, send bite-sized business management tips and anticipate fluctuations in demand. This coupled with our easily accessible float loans means that an agent never has to turn away a customer due to liquidity challenges.

Our app uses data science and predictive analytics to anticipate fluctuations in demand for mobile money agent services. We also use machine learning for automated credit scoring and loan origination.

Our solution serves mobile money agents; the human interface to mobile financial services for majority of the population in emerging market economies.

We have been developing Opareta since March 2019 and recently completed a 2 month beta testing period with agents in early 2020. In the beta, we worked with 82 agents to determine how Opareta can adapt and improve current agent workflows while improving the speed and accuracy of transactions. Agents transacting with our app were able to monitor their business performance and track their float position. We also determined that while these benefits were important, they did not solve liquidity challenges as agents kept asking if they could get float loans or transfer float between each other. As such we enabled the ability for agents to transfer float between each other in our initial release on March 16, 2020. At this time, 21 agents have downloaded our app despite the national lockdown.  

Our solution will enable agents to grow their business by accessing unsecured float loans based on their data. This will help them engage in sustainable business growth and decent livelihoods.

Our goal is to stimulate up to 30% growth in the annual business revenue of the agents we work with during the grant period. This should enable our customers to maintain resilient income-generating businesses and engage in better livelihoods. This is in line with the call for decent jobs and inclusive entrepreneurship.We plan to onboard and support at least 3000 woman-owned mobile money agent businesses. We know that women, especially in financial services delivery, are crucial to enabling a more inclusive financial economy.