White Label Crowdfunding (WLCF), a UK-based software as a service company that creates, launches and hosts crowdfunding platforms, has announced that it will be collaborating with Africa-based technology company Khonology as part of its global expansion programme.
Khonology focuses on financial and technology literacy, with the aim of developing local talent to serve technology-driven industries.
WLCF will strive to work towards extending the ecosystem in Africa, incorporating fintech products that drive inclusion. Khonology delivers five key services to its clients, which include all the main banks in South Africa.
These services are implementation and execution; strategy and advisory support; capacity and augmentation; learning and development; and enterprise solutions, which incorporate strategic partnerships for implementing company-wide systems.
Khonology CEO Michael Roberts says that through this new partnership, the company plans to extend its international reach. “We look forward to recruiting and working with African clients, getting to know the market and implementing fintech initiatives.”
“We will have a collaborative partnership engagement, whereby Khonology will leverage the technology to drive business growth and client benefit with a mature technology stack that has an amazing market record abroad. In addition, the partnership will help support the development of local skills and talent, which will in turn support the client community,” he explains.
Fintech can play a significant role in two key opportunities: non-traditional lending in the formal sector and economic empowerment. If one achieves the necessary levels of financial literacy in informal and largely excluded communities, a number of new promising start-ups and entrepreneurs will emerge.
Roberts says there is a real-world opportunity across the business sector, where the excessively stringent lending criteria of the banks hinder start-ups and small growing businesses. “Crowdfunding in this arena will definitely be an enabler to growth across Africa, and could also be the conduit for new innovation in terms of credit scoring and analysis.”
Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer are very much in their infancy and early stages in Africa. They hold the promise and potential to be real game changers and accelerate financial inclusion.
There are vast opportunities for establishing various alternative solutions for the large number of unbanked individuals across the African continent. The cost of banking in Africa is rather high, and crowdfunding and peer-to-peer offer up alternatives for both communities and businesses.
“I definitely see crowdfunding and peer-to-peer as major players in the world of fintech. The opportunity to add non-traditional products is very exciting; as a sort of Stokvels for communities, involving business lending for SMEs and entrepreneurs,” Roberts concludes.
