Q&A: Service Cops’ CEO Mathias Kamugasho speaks out on building one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest business technology firms with eyes on the continent Like many other FinTechs, Service Cops is that company you do not see in your face every day, but that doesn't mean that it is not present in your life. If you have paid school fees using your phone, chances are that you are one of the millions of Ugandans using their built-from-scratch SchoolPay platform. And if you have recently paid your insurance Motor-Third Party fees on your phone then you have used one of their Insuretech solutions, built together with NEON INC, an Insuretech firm contracted by the Insurance Regulatory Authority, to bring the Motor Third Party proposition to WhatsApp. Mathias Kamugasho, Service Cops’ Managing Director and shareholder, lets us in on some insights on what it has taken to date to shape Service Cops into one of the most impactful FinTechs in the region.

Can you start by telling briefly who is Service Cops?

Service Cops is a regional Financial Technology and Business Processes Outsourcing solutions provider. Having been incorporated over ten years ago, Service Cops has grown to be one of the leading FinTechs in the region.

Service Cops partners with over 16 commercial banks, 5 major telecoms, over 10,000 education institutions and several payment aggregators to deliver a stack of solutions in the banking and financial services, insurance and education sectors across the region.  To put our solutions in context, over three million customers in the banking and financial services sector alone use our services monthly.

Service Cops has headquarters in Uganda and has subsidiaries in Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia with Ghana and DRC being the latest additions.

Our solutions and services are developed and delivered in accordance with international best practices. We are an ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/ICE 27001:2013 certified company for Quality and Information Security respectively.

Service Cops is a gold member of the Financial Technology Association of Uganda (FITSPA) and a member of the Private Sector Foundation (PSFU).

What would you consider as some of the key milestones of the business to date?

There are a couple that I consider critical and they can broadly be categorized under three areas, namely: business, operational and business continuity.

Under business milestones, we have:

• The signing off our first bank client in 2010
• Surviving the 5-year mark in business
• Signing off our first telecom partner in 2016
• Hitting our first 2 million subscribers on one of our platforms in 2019
• Opening our new market frontiers/subsidiaries- in Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and most recently Ghana and DRC.

Operational milestones include:

• Setting up and implementation of a Quality Management system ISO 900:2015 in 2016
• Setting an Information Security Management System ISO/ICE 27001: 2013 in 2019

Our Business Continuity milestones include:

• Setting up a fully-fledged Board structure with executive and non-executive members
• Setting up a fully-fledged risk and business continuity management framework to ensure continuity of services for our customers.

What challenges have you had to overcome to get here- challenges that those after you, in your footsteps, should and can avoid?

Every business faces a number of challenges, but I must say to us the biggest challenges that I can think of are largely mental/psychological. Key among of them are:

• Keeping the focus and not getting tired
• Keeping the belief in self despite the daily business challenges
• Running the full circle in everything you do and avoiding shortcuts
• Balancing all the pictures i.e., short, medium, and long term

Having these at the back of your mind, building resilience and figuring out how to overcome these, is important for every entrepreneur and business leader.

Startups have unique challenges to them, especially in areas like fintech that are not yet very familiar to many people. Moreover, being a domestic startup has its own peculiar challenges. What are some of the things/incentives that you think the government should put in place to accelerate the startup ecosystem in Uganda?

First, let me explain in very simple terms the importance of the fintech industry. If you were in school in the 90s before mobile money, you understand how money used to be sent and the hustle it took to receive it. With the proliferation of mobile phones and the internet, coupled with fintech innovations, access to financial services has been greatly improved and very many people have been included in the money economy.

The fintech industry is the catalyst for the growth for all other sectors through innovations that enhance the exchange of goods and services, their distribution and promotion of financial inclusion for all. Because of this, the government should strongly support this budding industry with incentives and establish a fair well balanced legal and regulatory framework for its growth. Innovations the world over, come from unfamiliar places— small companies, and individuals, it is therefore imperative that the government’s role should centre on creating an environment that allows these kinds of actors to spur innovation through a conducive competitive environment while ensuring appropriate policies, regulations and laws to manage the industry risks.

The incentives could be financing/funding, appropriate training, investment in infrastructure to reduce costs, branding/marketing of the sector to attract business and investment and creating collaboration opportunities for upcoming innovators.

Why should someone consider doing business with Service Cops?

At Service Cops, we are not just a technology firm but a business technology firm. We don’t create technology solutions only but rather products with viable commercial models and complete full circle; from the technology side, market, business, operations and support. This enables our partners to easily visualize their value within our ecosystem. With us, you see where your money comes in.

Service Cops is a unique company because it blends service with technology. Our experience in outsourcing services within the Banking and Financial Services Sector gives us an edge when developing customer-centred tech solutions. Our technology solutions are built on a service-oriented, scalable and open architecture to provide the versatility needed in the tech industry.

We have a robust engineering team that is available 24/7 to attend to clients’ unique requests and support all our deployed solutions. Our support interfaces include WhatsApp chatbots, emails, social media and a contact centre.

Looking at the future- where do you see Service Cops in the next 10 years?

As far as the business model and business are concerned, that is a whole long time to predict given our kind of business. In this time-space Service Cops is envisaged to be a diversified group with entities in different sectors but still playing a leading role in the technology area.

As a brand, we hope to be a fully-fledged African firm making an impact in Africa and the world market. By that time, we expect our footprint, services and products should be available beyond Africa.