ClickPesa, a licensed financial technology (fintech) company, has officially launched ClickPesa MFI, a financial platform aimed Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) that helps to service small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and women-owned businesses better across Tanzania. This new platform builds on ClickPesa’s commitment to bridging the financing gap and advancing financial inclusion.
The company, which received its Payment Service Provider license from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) last year, already offers a payment gateway facilitating payment collection and bulk payouts. Services that can be accessed through a dashboard or API. Serving over 100 SMEs, marketplaces, developers and financial institutions, ClickPesa is now adding a dedicated service for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to address their operational challenges and financing needs, enabling them to better support their customers.
ClickPesa MFI delivers an integrated platform designed specifically for microfinance institutions. The platform facilitates digital loan disbursements, online and offline collection of repayments, and real-time reconciliation, automating payment workflows to reduce manual errors and enhance data accuracy. Additionally, it integrates with widely-used loan management and accounting software to streamline operations further.
In addition to technological solutions, ClickPesa MFI provides access to funding, enabling MFIs to expand their loan portfolios. This approach helps MFIs increase structure, scale their services, and as a result reach more customers.
“Our journey into this space was driven by a commitment to supporting SMEs and women-owned businesses,” said Richard Lema, COO of ClickPesa. “Over the course of 1.5 years, we interviewed more than 500 MFIs to understand their challenges and identify what drives their success in scaling operations and creating meaningful impact. Through discussions with established MFIs, we pinpointed three critical factors: maintaining immediate cash flow, leveraging powerful payment digitalization tools, and implementing seamless data automation.”
The development of ClickPesa MFI was an intensive and iterative process, involving thousands of hours spent piloting solutions, testing features, and collecting feedback from MFIs across Tanzania. This dedication has resulted in a platform that integrates these essential components into a single, effective solution designed for MFIs.
The new ClickPesa MFI financial platform focuses on addressing the unique needs of medium-sized MFIs, which often face challenges scaling due to resource constraints. By tackling this, the service enables MFIs to better support their customers. ClickPesa is committed to strengthening the microfinance sector and driving systemic change to promote financial inclusion. With 54.3% of SMEs in Tanzania being women-led, ClickPesa MFI empowers these enterprises through strengthened microfinance partnerships and is aligned with Tanzania’s Development Vision 2025.
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