Kawu is digitizing pocket money and supporting students’ financial inclusion. #40Days40FinTechs Season 5, Day 40

Boarding schools’ students always need some upkeep. Commonly know as ‘Pocket Money’, these funds enable them to restock their ‘School Grab’, affordable to buy eats at their canteens, contribute church tithe and pay for some school activities such as sports, parties and outings.

Traditionally, this money has always been kept by the students directly or kept by the school bursars, matrons, patrons and teachers. But this always comes with its unique challenges. Money kept by students is prone to either getting misplaced or stolen by their colleagues while that kept by the school staff sometimes gets mismanaged by the same staff.

In a move to address these issues, a team of young innovators a few years ago developed a digital financial services product. Named Kawu; this platform enables parents to digitally send pocket money to their kids through an APP or USSD and also allows students to receive this money on a smart card and digitally spend it at their canteens.

“We basically issue out credit and debit cards to students. In most African schools, students are not around to have mobile phones. So, when they are in schools, the only way they can access money is through cash. What we do is we take away all that process of sending money to students through teachers who then give it to them in cash. Kawu allows you as a parent to send money directly to the student, who then receives it on his/her smart card and uses the same card to make payments, save and make necessary withdraws,” explained Steven Kakooza, a co-founder and director at Kawu.  

He added: “When you look at the Education system in Africa, you find that students spend on average nine months every year in school. On average, someone spends 15 years in school. These are years the Youth spend without accessing digital financial services yet they need them. We created Kawu to address this issue. Because, the earlier we introduce the Youth to digital financial services, the better for them as they are able to transact, and start saving at an early age.”

He revealed that since its launch in 2022, Kawu is currently used by more than 62,000 active customers – students and parents, in up to 70 schools across Uganda. He highlighted that to deliver this service, Kawu works with Interswitch; a bank of Uganda licensed financial technology company.

Kawu has featured on Day 40, the final day of the annual 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.

Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.

With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.