Virtual Telesavings and Asset Acquisition (VAT)
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Virtual Telesavings and Asset Acquisition (VAT) .
VAT buys assets and gives them to persons on loan, who pay periodically through a telesaving process. When complete, the assets become theirs indefinitely.
About You
About You
First Name
Nathan
Last Name
Muwereza
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
African Community Team Support (ACTS)
Organization Website
Organization Country
Uganda, MBA
Country where this project is creating social impact
Uganda, MBA
Is your organization a
Hybrid
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for less than a year
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Many people work hard but save little (if any) in developing countries like Uganda. They cannot easily accumulate funds to buy assets, machines or other necessary equipment to use. The process of making savings or getting credit itself is complicated by distant banks and paperwork (and is seemingly meant for only literate people). Moreover, mainstream credit/loans have conditions such as collateral security which most of them (especially women and youths) do not posses.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
VAT enables marginalized but yet hardworking persons to acquire capital equipments through an informal loaning process. These include motorcycles and hair cutting machines for youths and women; and agricultural implements such as pumps for irrigation, tractors and grinding machines for peasants. They are also provided with a virtual bank(banking money on a designated phone) through which they pay and save.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
A machine is bought and given to a person (or a team), who uses it to earn and pay for it periodically through telephone money transfers. Part of the amount transferred is a saving for the payee and is paid to them after an agreed time frame for reinvestment.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Savings and credit cooperatives exist and are trying to reach even in rural areas. This means that there is a competition for clients. However, their stringent conditions, bureaucratic behavior and too much formalized paperwork is their undoing. Besides, VET attaches credit to equipment which is used to raise the money to pay it and this is the niche.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
I was orphaned early in a marginalized conflict area. I worked hard to gain formal education with a hope of getting a job. The misery and helpless state of similar others in my vicinity has been a continuous challenge in my life. After my undergraduate degree in 2004, I individually accommodated some in my small room. I was jobless and life was very difficult for all of us. When I got a scholarship at Cambridge University, I saved part of it and bought a sewing machine for one of them to learn tailoring. On my return from Cambridge in 2007, I realized the importance of giving people practical skills and equipment to work. She even partly supported me since I was still unemployed. Since then, I informally mobilized similar others into nursery teachers and hair dressers; and formerly registered a hybrid company in 2009 to officially operate. Although they can earn, they do not save and invest for sustainability and growth, a gap this project seeks to fill.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Empower as many poor people as possible with not only skills but resources to work and lead edifying lives. I aspire to realize a society where everybody does something beneficial to him/herself and others; and a world without social injustice arising from marginalization and exploitation due to socioeconomic powerlessness.
Which barrier(s) to financial inclusion does your solution seek to address? (select all applicable)
Physical and other accessibility obstacles that prevent communities from reaching financial services, The lack of affordable financial products tailored to the needs of underserved and excluded communities,, Other (Please describe below).
If you selected 'other' above, please specify which other barriers to financial inclusion you solution seeks to address:
Provision of required capital inputs (equipment) to enable hard working persons earn and save for investment.
For which underserved or excluded communities will your solution create access to valuable, affordable, secure and comprehensive financial services?
-Women and youths: These are proportionately marginalized and exploited in male dominated societies. They are economically powerless and depend on their male counterparts or spouses for their livelihoods.
-Rural small scale farmers (mainly peasants): These constitute over 60% of populations in Sub Saharan Africa, including Uganda. Their rural nature limits their accessibility to financial and/or banking services. Similar, majority are illiterate and find it difficult to go through the detailed formal processes that mainstreaming banking requires.
Could your solution work in other geographies or regions? If so, where?
This solution is capable of operating anywhere in the world where machinery is limited yet there are people who can use them. However, for virtual telesaving (banking) to work, the solution needs locations where mobile money transfer facilities exist.
If your solution is dramatically successful, how will things be different in 10 years?
Every person will be able to acquire important assets needed in the production process such as tractors (for peasants). Savings will increase and credit will be spread to thousands of beneficiaries. Credit services will increase to reach to remotest of creditors. Similarly, the agency will grow into a multimillion entity worldwide.
What will have had to have changed to make this happen?
Mobile phones and telephone networks will have reached even such remote areas envisioned here. This is so because, telesaving is dependent on the mobile money transfer solution.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
A motor bicycle has been bought and given to a youth who is using it to pay back the original price plus 20% of that price.Five shaving machines have also already been bought and given to two youths who are now paying back. Two oxen were also bought and used as a pilot activity with a peasant group in one of the villages and they have so far advanced to a level of being able to acquire a second hand tractor. Other groups were initiated but without this saving component and are yet to be introduced to it so they can save too.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
Over 10 groups will have been established and given equipments to generate incomes. Over 30 durable machines and equipment such as motorcycles, tractors, irrigation pumps and grinding mills will have been bought and loaned to groups and individuals to work, pay the loan and be able to move out of their poverty stricken conditions.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Mobilize a few team members and induct them as beneficiaries
Task 2
Buy initial cheaper equipment and/or machines
Task 3
Evaluate and roll out the solution to other members
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Mobilize more members with experiences from the first lot
Task 2
Buy more equipment and machines
Task 3
Evaluate and roll out the solution further
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
We currently collaborate with global giving (UK) which link us to volunteers and aid in collecting and disbursing donations from well wishers worldwide. Others are government agencies such as police and local councils. I am also working with a group of friends in Germany who will be collecting and shipping relevant equipments such as saws and hair cutters for teams to use.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
Southern Sudan is very lucrative country for business and is our my next target. Many are poor as they have been at war for decades and need support to develop. However, the lack of mobile money transfer facilities there is the main limitation. We will base in northern Uganda and only make entries occasionally using the porous nature of the social boundaries. Our team members will be crossing and carry out business there and comeback with our support.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
All board members are working voluntarily. We do what we do with our spare time and this makes us self-sustaining. We also begun operations informally and just got registered in 2009. This has made us know how to go about our efforts with ease.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
While I aspire to mentor others, I need to network with others to be supported legally, financially or technologically to successfully operate say in other countries. Ideas are varied and getting insights of others' innovations is vital for me as they mentor me too. I am also willing to collaborate and share my coalition/team building skills, research work and ideas with others.
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| tractor.jpg | 2.45 KB |
| boda_boda.jpg | 149.8 KB |
| bike_for_taxi_work.jpg | 402.1 KB |
 | 45 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza updated this Competition Entry. |
| 46 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza updated this Competition Entry. |
| 46 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza updated this Competition Entry. |
| 46 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza updated this Competition Entry. |
| 46 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza updated this Competition Entry. |
| 46 weeks ago Nathan Muwereza submitted this idea. |
