Ugandan fintech Qiribu believes itself to be the first platform within the East African country to launch an earned wage access product, which it plans to expand into Kenya and Rwanda in the next couple of years.
Qiribu provides salaried employees with the ability to access a portion of their earned wages before their regular payday, something which can be particularly useful for employees facing financial emergencies or who just need some extra cash to tide them over until their next payday.
Qiribu works with employers to set up a system where employees can request and receive a portion of their earned wages at any point during the pay period, and the employer reimburses Qiribu at the end of the pay period.
“In addition to providing a convenient way for employees to access their earned wages, we are going to add other financial services such as budgeting tools and financial education resources to help workers better manage their finances,” Dan Wasswa, the startup’s CEO and co-founder, told Disrupt Africa.
Such products are common in some other African markets, especially South Africa, where competition is fierce, but less so in East Africa. Wasswa said this realisation had come to his team while working another fintech-focused product a couple of years ago.
“In late-2020 we were working on creating a neo-bank specifically for the Ugandan market, but as we did more research and talked to potential users, we realised that the issue wasn’t just about the user interface or usability,” he said.
“Many people told us that they only interacted with their bank once a month, and that running out of cash during the month was a common problem, especially for young employees in industries like hospitality, retail, and manufacturing. These people often lived paycheck to paycheck, and their options for getting cash in an emergency were either high-interest loans or borrowing from friends and family.”
Qiribu, then, spotted a gap in the market.
“We noticed that the options for affordable and accessible capital for users in our target user group were limited from traditional financial institutions. We also saw a concerning growth of high interest, predator payday loan apps in East Africa. We saw an opportunity to provide a better alternative for individuals in need of low cost, easy access financial assistance,” said Wasswa.
The startup has seen slow early growth, but has plenty of interest. Its first client, a company with 30 employees, has 10 active users of its product, while more are soon coming on board.
“We are also in advanced talks to onboard a nationwide coffee shop chain that employs over 100 staff. This is a big opportunity for us as it will significantly increase our user base and bring in more revenue. We are excited about the potential growth this partnership could bring and are working diligently to make it a reality,” said Wasswa.
Qiribu is bootstrapped to date, with Wasswa saying it knew it needed to prove the value of its product before it could secure any significant investment or partnerships.
“We secured our first client with 30 employees almost immediately. This was a huge milestone for us, as it proved that there was a demand for our product and that we were on the right track.
With our first client on board, we knew that it was time to start thinking about how we could grow our business and bring on more clients,” he said.
Qiribu has been operating in Uganda, and is planning to expand to Rwanda and Kenya in the coming two years.
“This expansion will allow us to tap into new markets and increase our reach and customer base,” said Wasswa.
Qiribu makes money by charging a flat transaction fee to users when they advance or “cash out” their earned wages.
“We are also planning to launch our Qiribu bank card, which will allow users to “cash out” for free. Instead, we will make money from the card transactions made by users. Overall, our business model is based on charging fees for the convenience and accessibility of accessing earned wages in real-time,” Wasswa said.
