Kenya - Business creation project

Describe your project or startup in a few words

We provide a platform to consolidate savings into an account that creates a digital balance and physical reserves to use in credit creation thus increasing access to affordable credit on the continent. We also remove the risk of loss for P2P & B2C lenders

01.01 Describe your project in more detail

We use the physical cash individuals and businesses hold as savings to create a lending reserve for them and at the same time provide them with a digital balance equal to the value of their savings. Therefore you generate a digital loan that you can borrow or lend from giving you two balances instead of one when you provide us with your savings. Borrowers cannot physically withdraw the credit they receive to ensure that we provide zero interest loans since the physical cash never leaves the system. If the cash was available to withdraw for borrowers like other systems then if we couldn't recover the physical cash, the CurrencyStore platform would be compromised due to a lack of physical cash to support transactions on the platform

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

We want to make it possible to account for cash based peer to peer and business to customer lending by consolidating the records of all of an individuals transactions on one account they can use for a lifetime. Secondly, we want to increase availability of credit by increasing the amount of reserves available for credit creation by having an account to hold savings and freeing up physical cash to use to facilitate lending activities for the individuals and businesses that have these savings

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your project intends to provide (at least 3).

1. Access to zero interest credit that is equivalent to your savings balance which you retain access to meaning you get two balances from your savings. 2. Decentralising credit creation to the creators of value who are the individuals and businesses rather than relying on centralised credit from banks that uses money from individuals and businesses to lend to others instead of they who bring the money to the banks. Thus we are advocating for credit justice by guaranteeing access to credit for all and specifically investment credit. 3. Transfers of value on the platform will cost Kes. 150-300 per month regardless of the size and number of transactions undertaken. 5. You consolidate your lifetime transaction records on one account which also insures your value against loss particularly from bad loans.

01.04 Please describe who exactly your project is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

1. Small businesses that offer credit to individuals by allowing purchases on credit paid at the end of the month. The businesses can offer this account to their customers to keep a digital record of the credit they provide to them. 2. The customers onboarded by these businesses, if they undertake any peer to peer lending, can use the platform to create digital lending records for their lending to friends and relatives. 3. Chamas can use the platform for saving and access to credit for their members. 4. Banks and other lending institutions can also use the platform to offer risk free loans to borrowers. This is because borrowers lose the capacity to physically access depositor money through withdrawals of the credit they receive.

01.05 When did you start working on your project?

2014-01-01

01.06 How many other partners are associated with your business venture?

2

01.07 Among the other partners, how many are female?

1

01.08 Please describe the profile of each of the other partners (skills, experience, etc.)

Victor Gitonga is a former merchant banker with Absa Kenya where he worked for 5, years. His educational background is in economics and finance. Presently he works on providing Saccos with ICT systems. 2. Imelda Njiru is a medical doctor who is currently pursuing her master's degree and has been practicing since 2018. She is a founder as well of a company offering mental health services and counselling.

01.09 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link here:

01.10 Which industry best describes your project?

g) Financial services

02.01.01 My project contributes to the No poverty goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification

Every individual able to hold any savings will automatically be able to generate an equivalent amount in credit for investment and our system is inclusive and doesn't discriminate allowing all Nationals access to the platform using their own domestic currency units.

02.02.01 My project contributes to the Zero hunger goal

5

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification

With access to affordable credit then individuals can begin to ensure they are able to sustain their consumption by investing in sustainable food production initiatives with the credit they generate on our platform

02.03.01 My project contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

5

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification

Access to credit that has zero interest will definitely improve the well being particularly of those who have little or are on the streets even being able to do more with funds they may get as donations

02.04.01 My project contributes to the Quality education goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification

Education is one of the investments that we seek to promote to users of the platform by allowing access to credit up to 100,000 to children to guarantee their education regardless of the economic status of their parents

02.05.01 My project contributes to the Gender equality goal

4

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification

02.06.01 My project contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

3

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification

02.07.01 My project contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

3

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification

02.08.01 My project contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification

With access to affordable credit for small businesses we can see an increase in their economic activities which will definitely boost economic growth in the countries where these businesses operates. For banks, if they can offer these zero risk non,-withdrawable loans it means they will be motivated to lend more increasing the supply of credit in economies where our solution is available.

02.09.01 My project contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

6

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification

We seek to make a big impact in the financial sector through our solution and even boosting cross border trade by easing transfer of funds across borders without the need for a single currency regime because we are able to make all African currencies transfer value as if they were a single currency.

02.10.01 My project contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification

If there is credit justice whereby you are not overlooked by lenders because of your past credit history or employment status when it comes to access to affordable credit, then we can reduce inequalities arising from lending favouring those with huge incomes and working against those with small incomes whose funds facilitate lending to those with large incomes while the loan applications of these small income individuals are denied or delayed

02.11.01 My project contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

4

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification

02.12.01 My project contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

4

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification

02.13.01 My project contributes to the Climate action goal

3

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification

02.14.01 My project contributes to the Life below water goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification

02.15.01 My project contributes to the Life on land goal

2

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification

02.16.01 My project contributes to the Peace justice and strong institutions goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.16.02 Peace justice and strong institutions - Justification

We promote justice for those who provide small funds to banks due to having small incomes by ensuring access to credit at the same favourable terms as those with large income. We also ensure we remove the risk to depositors when lending happens and borrowers face difficulty repaying their loans

02.17.01 My project contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

4

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification

05.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

1 - Strongly Disagree

05.02 The product/service we envision creating represents an entirely new type of product/service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.03 The product/service we envision creating could be described as a new technology.

5

05.04 The product/service we envision creating is an improvement on an existing product or service.

6

05.05 The product/service we envision creating could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

1 - Strongly Disagree

05.06 The product/service we envision creating responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.07 The product/service we envision creating is a new version of an old product/service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.08 Justification

Access to affordable credit that has zero risk to lenders will definitely be something new from something that has been with us for long just that we want to decentralise the creation and access of digital credit to individuals from banks. Our main aim is to allow individuals and businesses to generate their own lending reserves from their savings balances without using banks to do this because it doesn't benefit the savings holders. Also because the credit we provide is non withdrawable to ensure that you can only make transfers from one account to another, will ensure that those who hold reserves for credit are never at risk in case borrowers are unable to repay their loans

05.09 Who are your main potential competitors and what makes you stand out from them?

Banks and Saccos provide accounts for savings and credit but members of these institutions run the risk of losing their funds through different avenues like theft, fraud or insolvency from bad loans. We remove all these risks and ensure that no physical cash can be withdrawn from our platform to protect users even from fraudsters or hackers or any bad actor.

10.06 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?

No