The low bancarization in Africa has long kept a large part of the population away from traditional financial services such as savings and credit. Tontines have become the way for the unbanked to access these services.
To make this informal savings method more effective, given its proven social impact over many years in Africa, Nigerian Bernie Akporiaye launched MaTontine- a financial service platform that uses digital technology to modernize traditional savings circles. MaTontine, currently available in Senegal, provides access to small loans and a range of financial services such as micro-insurance to its customers. “We solve the problem by utilizing mobile phones and our platform to digitize the benefits of traditional savings circles (ROSCAs), thereby reducing the cost of borrowing by 75% or more,” explains Bernie Akporiaye.
The platform's members contribute to an online kitty and collect the amount in turns. According to Bernie Akporiaye, members receive a credit score based on their payment morality, from which partners can offer them small loans or contracts. The use of the basic service is free of charge, the startup being financed via the commissions taken from the services of its partners Cofina and Sunu Assurance.
The particularity of MaTontine is that it uses old-generation mobile phones, unlike most competing fintech companies that use smartphones; 90% of the platform’s members are women. Bernie Akporiaye stressed that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable these women are, most of whom “live on less than $5 a day." MaTontine is therefore working on integrating other services such as financial education, to better prepare users for a possible future crisis.
The startup won the 3rd prize in Orange’s AfricaCom Awards competition in 2016 and a grant from the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator innovation fund in February 2018. It was honored in 2019 by Inclusive Fintech 50 Fintech, an initiative by MetLife Foundation, Visa, Accion, and IFC. Since its launch, MaTontine has registered 6,000 customers and disbursed $200,000 in loans.
Ruben Tchounyabe
