Day: September 7, 2021

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Advans Group Selects Tagit to Digitize Customer Experience in Microfinance

  • Roll-out of Mobeix™ Retail Banking in eight markets
  • To be deployed on AWS Cloud and delivered Software-as-a-Service Product

SINGAPORE, Sept. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Advans, a microfinance group operating in Africa and Asia, has chosen Tagit, a leading digital banking solutions provider, to implement Mobeix™ Retail Banking in its eight regional markets. Powered by Tagit, Advans mobile app will fulfil the expectations of their clients by providing digital financial services for their daily operations, increasing financial inclusion and delivering a superior customer experience. Advans is a leading international microfinance group with over 1mn clients and a presence in 9 markets. Advans aims to foster financial inclusion by providing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and other underserved populations with loans, deposits, current & savings accounts, and other financial services.

With this partnership, Advans will accelerate its impact and reach out to more clients in its markets through its ability to provide client-centric digital financial services to its clients sustainably and responsibly.

Advans mobile app is part of Advans’ global innovation and digital transformation program. The Group will progressively digitize its processes and solutions, and a cutting-edge mobile app will play a key role in Advans’ customer service strategy, offering a broad range of products and services to increase client satisfaction and retention.

Grégoire Danel-Fédou, Chief Operations Officer and Deputy CEO of Advans Group, says: “Our future mobile app will make the everyday lives of our clients easier, ensuring they can access Advans products and services anytime and anywhere. With Tagit, we can scale our services on-demand on a secure and robust platform, giving us the freedom to focus on our customers’ needs which will help accelerate digital transformation in our markets.”

Sandeep Bagaria, CEO of Tagit, said, “We are delighted to partner with Advans on this initiative and bring best-in-class financial services to these underserved populations. We aim to deliver outstanding user experience (UX) and innovative solutions built on a secure and scalable digital engagement technology platform. Advans has a clear digital roadmap for their customers, and we are best positioned with Mobeix to help them achieve it.”

Key highlights:

  • Advans mobile app will drive financial inclusion through customer engagement, multi-equipment, and acquisition at a lower operational cost; leveraging technologies to streamline processes
  • With simplified UX for each customer journey, Advans mobile app will help clients manage their finances and access Advans services, including digital loans and deposit and saving accounts
  • The mobile app will be a valuable addition to Advans existing omnichannel set-up, including branches, field tellers, third party agents, partnerships with mobile money operators, USSD menus, etc.
  • The solution will be hosted on AWS Cloud and deployed as a SaaS product

Tagit is currently the partner of choice for several banks in Asia, the Middle East and Africa for their omnichannel digital banking needs.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Tagit Pte Ltd

Jalpa Shah
jalpa.shah@tagitmobile.com
https://www.tagitmobile.com
+65-94770009

Advans

Iana Noteva
inoteva@advansgroup.com
https://www.advansgroup.com/

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Uganda Opposition MPs Accused in Machete Killings of Elderly

Two Ugandan opposition members of parliament were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly orchestrating a wave of machete killings that left dozens dead in the south of the country, a move described as “political persecution” by their lawyer.

For two months, the region of Masaka, located about 150 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kampala, has been living in terror of gangs that have killed around 30 people, mainly the elderly, in their homes at night, according to police.

After two days of questioning by the police, MPs Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Sewanyana were indicted by a court in Masaka on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, their lawyer, Elias Lukwago, told AFP.

“They have denied all charges. … This is political persecution by the military regime of (Uganda President Yoweri) Museveni,” Lukwago said.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the use of a biased judicial process to meet the political objectives of a ruling party,” he added, indicating that they would be held in pretrial detention until September 15 in the high-security prison of Kitalya, near Kampala.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga explained that Ssegirinya and Sewanyana were arrested after statements by several suspects accusing them of organizing the attacks “to sow fear among the population and make people hate the government.”

Both MPs are members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) of opposition leader Bobi Wine, rival of President Museveni in the disputed January election.

Wine, whose real name Robert Kyagulanyi, said the accusations were mounted by the government of Museveni to discredit the opposition.

“When the president recently said that the opposition was behind the killings, we thought it was a bad joke. But when the police summoned our MPs, we realized that the regime’s plan to involve the leaders of the NUP in the murders was at work,” he said.

In a speech last month, Museveni called the perpetrators “pigs” and vowed their doom.

In power since 1986, Museveni, 76, was reelected in January for a sixth term, ahead of Wine, who denounced an electoral “masquerade.”

“No matter what the Museveni regime does, one day Uganda will be free, and those accused of crimes because they belong to the opposition will be released,” Wine said.

In Masaka, residents called on the government to take strong action to stop the killers.

“We mourn our loved ones who were killed, we live in fear of being killed by gangs armed with machetes,” Sarah Kasujja, a 45-year-old trader, told Agence France-Presse. She said her 81-year-old grandfather is one of the gangs’ victims.

“Some elderly people who lived alone (…) fled their homes to find safety in the cities,” she said. “The government should be held responsible for not defending us against the killers. The army and the police were deployed, but they arrived too late.”

Ugandan National Council for the Elderly President Charles Isabirye called the wave of killings a “shock to the nation.”

“That someone is killing elderly people who live quietly in their homes is inconceivable,” he told AFP. “We call on the government to ensure the protection of the elderly in the countryside, and the people behind (the murders) must be identified and punished.”

Source: Voice of America

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Millions Face Hunger Crisis as Conflict Engulfs Northern Ethiopia

GENEVA – The World Food Program warns that emergency food needs in northern Ethiopia are increasing, as conflict spills beyond the embattled Tigray region into neighboring Afar and Amhara provinces.

The agency reports that up to 7 million people are acutely short of food and are facing a hunger crisis. They include more than 5.2 million people in Tigray who are dependent on U.N. food aid for survival. Additionally, the World Food Program reports the conflict, which has now engulfed the entire region, has thrust 1.7 million more people into hunger.

This month, WFP has begun delivering emergency food assistance to communities in Ethiopia’s northern region and says it plans to reach 530,000 people in Afar and 250,000 in Amhara with food aid.

Meanwhile in Tigray, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says the situation continues to deteriorate. He says aid agencies are struggling to meet the urgent food needs of more than 5 million people across the war-torn region.

“In fact, WFP food stocks had been almost entirely depleted until two days ago when the first convoy in over two weeks entered the region,” said Phiri. “The WFP-led convoy of over 100 trucks carried 3,500 metric tons of food and other life-saving cargo, including fuel, as well as health and shelter items.”

Phiri says WFP has only managed to get 355 trucks into the region since mid-July. While this sounds like much, he says it is not. He says 355 trucks represents less than 10 percent of the supplies needed. He says 100 trucks must enter Tigray every day to meet people’s food requirements.

He says trucks get stuck in Afar because of bureaucratic delays and difficulties in passing checkpoints. He says some trucks also have been attacked and looted by people in local communities.

“Apart from the escalating fighting that is in the north of the country, food security for millions across the whole of Ethiopia is also under threat due to an unprecedented funding gap for WFP activities in the country,” said Phiri.

WFP is calling for $426 million to expand its emergency food operation to meet the needs of up to 12 million people throughout Ethiopia this year. The agency warns it will be forced to cut rations for people in northern Ethiopia if it does not receive the extra funding,

It says it might have to stop distributing food to about 4 million people in Tigray, Afar and Amhara in the coming months if it runs out of money.

November 4 will mark a year since the Ethiopian government began its military offensive to wrest control of the Tigray region from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Source: Voice of America