December 2, 2021

Untapped Global and Asaak Partner to Finance 2,000+ Motorbikes in Uganda

Partnership expands financing options for African entrepreneurs through Smart Asset Financing™

KAMPALA, Uganda, Dec. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Untapped Global, an innovative investment company focused on emerging markets, announced today a scale up of its partnership with Asaak, a financial services provider to unbanked Ugandan entrepreneurs, to provide financing for over 2,000 motorcycles over the next 12 months.

The partnership will revolutionise motorcycle leasing in Uganda, by leveraging the rapid digitization happening across the continent. In the past, access to money-making assets such as motorbikes was limited to those who could afford to purchase them in full, and markets were dominated by informal lenders. Now, companies like Asaak are digitizing the lending process, making it safer and easier for entrepreneurs to lease and finance their own assets – a key to economic development on the continent.

Asaak offers financial services via a digital platform to entrepreneurs who otherwise would not have access. Asaak’s boda boda (motorbike) financing program approves drivers for loans based on financial and behavioral data, such as the number of trips completed on mobility apps, including Bolt (Taxify), Safeboda, Uber and Jumia. Most boda drivers rent motorcycles because they cannot afford to buy one in cash, nor do they have the formal credit or income history to qualify for a bank loan. This is where Smart Asset Financing™ comes in.

Untapped Global’s Smart Asset Financing investment model finances revenue-generating assets for entrepreneurs and SMEs in the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets, such as Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Mexico. Untapped and Asaak had a successful initial pilot in November 2020 to finance 40 motorbikes, and this month, Untapped signed on to provide scale-up financing for over 2000 vehicles in the next 12 months.

The pilot and scale up prove Untapped Global’s innovative Smart Asset Financing model offers great potential for follow-on funding for growing partners. The company uses real-time IoT data for the assets it finances to track key metrics such as usage and revenue, allowing for faster due diligence. While Asaak’s fast growth and expansion have enabled an equally fast scale-up of investment from its financing partner.

“Mobility is an important driver of economic development in Africa, and digitizing financing for boda bodas is key to making transport more accessible and affordable,” says Jim Chu, Founder and CEO at Untapped. “We look forward to providing the financing to help Asaak scale their business as much as they, and their entrepreneurs, need.”

“Our goal at Asaak is to make it easier for gig economy workers across Africa to access sustainable financial services,” Dylan Terrill, Chief Business Officer of Asaak said. “The team at Untapped is aligned with that goal and our growing partnership underscores the dedication to ensure that business owners have the opportunity to reach their full economic potential.”

Untapped Global is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder to enable any investor large or small to participate in the movement to empower entrepreneurship around the world.

About Untapped Global
Based in San Francisco with teams in East Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe, Untapped Global is reshaping profitable investing in frontier markets. On a mission to empower the next billion entrepreneurs to scale to their full potential, Untapped creates opportunity by connecting frontier market innovators to global investors through its Smart Asset Financing™ platform that provides CAPEX financing for revenue-generating assets. Press or other inquiries please reach out to Lundie@untapped-global.com.

About Asaak
Asaak is an African fintech company that provides asset financing to entrepreneurs across Africa. In 2019, they launched a motorcycle financing product for taxi (“boda”) drivers in partnership with the country’s largest ride hailing apps: Jumia, Uber, SafeBoda, and Bolt. Asaak is backed by leading American and African VCs (Resolute Ventures, Social Capital, 500 Startups, HOF Capital, Catalyst Fund). For more information, visit www.asaak.com or contact press@asaak.com

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1700940/Asaak_Boda_Boda_Driver.jpg

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1640513/Untapped_Global_Logo.jpg

December 2, 2021

COVID, Conflicts Prompt UN to Make Record Appeal for Humanitarian Aid

The United Nations is appealing for a record $41 billion to help 183 million of the world’s most vulnerable people suffering from multiple crises, including poverty, hunger, conflict, and the impact of COVID-19.

U.N. officials report an estimated 274 million people worldwide will require emergency aid and protection next year. This is a 17-percent increase from 2021.

U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths cites long lasting conflicts, political instability, failing economies, climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic as the main drivers of need.

“There are 45 million people at risk of famine worldwide. One percent of humanity is displaced, and it would be no surprise to all of us that women and girls continue to suffer the most, just as civilians continue to suffer the most in war,” he said.

Griffiths said humanitarian aid can limit the worst consequences of existing and emerging crises. For example, he said U.N. aid brought back half a million people from the brink of famine in South Sudan this year. He said aid agencies delivered health care for 10 million people in Yemen and helped vaccinate millions of others against killer diseases in Myanmar.

While aid does save lives, he notes it is no solution. He said humanitarian aid does not replace development assistance.

“And we see in many countries—Afghanistan is just one most recent example. Humanitarian assistance is not a remedy for the people of Afghanistan. It is not the way to stabilize societies. One of the tragedies of the situation in Ethiopia that we see now as a result of that conflict, is the erosion of the development gains over the last 40 years,” he said.

Griffiths considers the crisis in Ethiopia to be the most alarming in terms of immediate emergency needs. He notes nine million people in northern Ethiopia’s Amhara, Afar and Tigray regions are seriously short of food.

Of those, he says five million people in Tigray are suffering from acute hunger, with 400,000 on the verge of famine. He said he is very worried about the rebel military advance on the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, warning it will have a seismic effect on the rest of the country, engulfing the entire region.

Source: Voice of America

December 2, 2021

Two Soldiers Killed in Militant Attack in Benin, Army Says

Two soldiers were killed and several more were wounded when Islamist militants attacked a border security post in northern Benin on Wednesday night, the army said.

The raid in Porga region was the second in Benin this week. Islamist militants attacked an army patrol in the department of Alibori on Tuesday morning, army chief Colonel Fructueux Gbaguidi said in an internal statement on Thursday seen by Reuters.

The army killed one militant in Tuesday’s attack and another on Wednesday night, he said. An official statement by the army later confirmed the deaths and attributed the attacks to unidentified armed men.

Militant attacks are rare in Benin, but groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State are active in its northern neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger and have made increasing incursions south.

Islamist militant violence has ravaged much of West Africa’s Sahel region, and states on the Gulf of Guinea have reinforced security to try to keep it at bay.

“This new test reminds us in blood and pain that the danger on the ground is real,” Gbaguidi said in his note to officers.

Benin had not reported an Islamist attack since 2019, when two French tourists were kidnapped in a national park and later taken by the militants into Burkina Faso. They were rescued by the French military.

Neighboring Togo said last month it had repelled an attack near its northern border, which was the first by suspected Islamists in the country.

Source: Voice of America

December 2, 2021

Experts: Travel Bans Another Blow to Crippled South African Economy

Sudden travel bans imposed on South Africa in the past week over the omicron variant of coronavirus have dealt a blow to an already struggling economy, experts say. The jobless rate is creeping toward half the population and the lost tourism this month will have a far-reaching impact extending beyond the travel sector.

The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, at the center of the apartheid struggle in South Africa, is normally bustling with tourists.

Since the recent discovery of the omicron coronavirus variant, foreign visitors have vanished. Britain was the first to halt flights to South Africa, with the United States and other countries quickly following suit.

People working in the tourism industry say panic over the new variant is decimating business, just as travel was starting to pick up over the past two months.

Wayne Barnes is a sales manager with MoAfrika Tours.

“When the U.K. actually opened up and took us off the red list, we started seeing an increase [in] numbers [of] travelers from all around the world started to support us again. So, their decisions is definitely affecting, you know, everybody around the world on their decisions,” he said.

And the decision blindsided many.

Barnes said his company lost over $30,000 to refunds in just one day for canceled December bookings.

Tour guides like Thabang Moleya went from leading groups of over 40 people last week to no one today.

“I’m very hurt at the moment, namely, because things were starting to look like we were starting to be working normally, that which will remind us of life before COVID,” said Moleya.

It’s not just the tourism industry that’s hurting.

From vehicle suppliers to website developers, the collapse of travel is having a domino effect across the economy.

Nearly 47% of South Africans were jobless last quarter, according to government statistics released this week.

It’s a bleak landscape for parents and breadwinners like Thabang Moleya, who are again facing layoffs.

“At some point, I wanted to come up with an idea of what one can do. Also, it was not easy for one to find any job. I’m just hoping and believing that one day one would work again, the world would travel again,” said Moleya.

But economists say recovery is years away.

And locking down will only slow that recovery and make life harder for the poorest.

Dawie Roodt is the chief economist for the Efficient Group in Pretoria.

“The biggest killer out there is not a virus or TB, or AIDS or anything, the biggest killer out there is poverty. It might be necessary to prevent larger crowds to get together and things like that. But it’s not necessarily necessary to stop airlines from flying and to necessarily stop people from going, stay at home [and] not go to work, or stay at home and not go to the factory and things like that,” said Roodt.

For those who have managed to cling to their jobs, like Johannesburg tourism ambassador Mbali Ngema, the situation still feels demoralizing.

“Before, you used to have that thing of waking up in the morning to say I’m going to work, I’m going to see new people, I’m going to meet new people. But due to this, you just wake up and you sit and you do nothing,” said Ngema.

Until scientists better understand the omicron variant and politicians change their views on travel, South Africans will have to continue waiting for normal life to return.

Source: Voice of America