As Uganda’s 14-day lockdown enters into day 2 and businesses generally suffer from Covid-19 related travel restrictions, Xente Tech, an African e-commerce, and financial services fintech has offered to migrate Ugandan micro-businesses to the Xente online sales platform for free.
This limited-time offer will allow especially small businesses to stay trading, cutting costs and increase sales today and in the future, according to Allan Rwakatungu, Xente’s Chief Executive Officer.
“If you sell physical products, we can quickly shift your sales channel mix from person-to-person and physical stores to new digital and online channels. We will put special emphasis on Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) businesses,” he said in a company statement, adding: “For micro-merchants, we will waive setup fees and not charge a commission for 3 months.”
“If your finance processes rely on cash and manual paperwork, for example, handling petty cash in the office, paying workers with cash, shopping from physical stores for office supplies with cash – we can help you quickly shift to modern digital and cashless processes. For any business that wants to eliminate manual and cash processes in their business, we will assign a customer success manager to help you get started free of charge,” he added.
Rwakatungu said this was an “opportunity for businesses in Africa to embrace digital and cashless process to grow sales and reduce costs.”
“In the lockdown announced by the president, vital supplies like food and pharmaceuticals have been left open and delivery services for these vital services are also operating. However, the biggest challenge to businesses is how to reach customers but also win their trust. When you sign up to Xente, you will immediately have access to our over 50,000+ B2C customers that are already using our platform. Secondly, your income will be safely kept away where you can track and access it online as well as transfer it across various platforms,” said Rwakatungu.
“The positive impact of this will continue beyond the Covid19 crisis. We are in a new paradigm where digital and online channels and modes are integral to continued survival versus just offline (physical, face to face, cash),” he said.
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Using an analogy, Rwakatungu said that Xente is “like Amazon and a bank, all in one”, adding that Xente products target 2 broad segments, namely: individuals (B2C) and businesses (B2B)
“For individuals, we have built a super app on Android and IOS that they use to purchase everyday lifestyle products airtime and data, events/bus/movie tickets, gift vouchers, electronics, clothes, and groceries – you name it. People can pay now, pay later (credit) or layaway,” he said.
“For businesses, Xente as digital tools they can use to make purchases for office use. These include airtime, internet packages, Uber rides, coffee, water, printers, computers, and other office supplies from retailers listed on our platform. They can pay using mobile money, bank card or bank wire. We also invoice them monthly,” he added.
He said to date, Xente has acquired 50,000+ B2C customers as well as 50+ B2B customers including Orient Bank, Jumia, TPO, Financial Sector Deepening Uganda – FSD Uganda (FSDU) just to mention a few.
Xente has onboarded 100+ vendors who sell their products on Xente, some of whom include: MTN Uganda, LafargeHolcim (parent company of Hima Cement), Transtel (Samsung dealer), Minute5 and Jesa Dairy.
