JUMO is a full tech stack for building and running financial services. The company works with mobile network operators and banks and offers digital financial services such as credit and savings.
JUMO currently operates in 6 markets including Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Uganda.
With the current theme of “Financial Inclusion” making headlines in Africa, JUMO is a company making headway in trying to help individuals and small businesses access financial instruments and services to enable them achieve their end goals.
Tech Nova recently sat down with Arnold Kavaarpuo, Country Manager for JUMO in Ghana to talk about JUMO, the services they offer and financial inclusion.
We asked what kind of company JUMO is, and what exactly it is that they do
Arnold Kavaarpuo: “Jumo is a technology company that’s focused on designing solutions for the other half of the population, basically, those currently not included around financial inclusion.”
We design solutions that meet the needs of that segment. There’s a lot of data points that generated in terms of how people live their lives and what essentially we’re tried to do is integrated our solutions in those ecosystems.”
JUMO Ghana launched in 2015 and most of its Ghana operations are helped in partnerships with the mobile network operators. But he stated that they are open to other collaborations.
Arnold Kavaarpuo: “Most of our Ghana operations are currently driven by telcos but we’ve been able to create a business model that is agnostic of any particular platform.“
We asked Mr. Kavaarpuo about certain statistics in terms of number of clientele and financial numbers. Even though he couldn’t divulge those numbers, he emphasised that JUMO doesn’t look at their customers as just regular “data points”.
In Kenya and other East African countries, the use of Mobile Money is very prevalent. We asked what stood out when comparing Ghana and other countries when it came to the mobile money market.
Mr. Kavaarpuo stated that what stood out was “Regulation“.
The Bank Of Ghana, when compared to other African countries, has been very forward in putting together regulations for mobile money in Ghana as compared to other African countries Mr. Kavaarpuo revealed.
JUMO currently works with banks including AFB and Ecobank but they support micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana. As far as an estimate, Mr. Kavaarpuo stated JUMO had disbursed more than USD 1.6bn across its six markets.
On JUMO’s future plans, Mr. Kavaarpuo stated that the company is also working on other products including Credit, Savings, and Insurance.
JUMO will continue in the interim to work with their banking partners and the mobile operators to deliver their services to their customers and clients.
