Jumo Partners With MTN And MANSA Bank To Provide Loans To SMEs In Ivory Coast

JUMO, a mobile financial services platform for mobile network operators and banks, has partnered with MANSA bank and MTN Mobile Financial Services, Ivory Coast, to build a platform where short-term credits will be accessible to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Founded in 2015, JUMO focuses on a service that enables real-time access to funds at the lowest possible operating cost. The platform offers loans, savings, and a variety of financial choices to customers.

The Goldman Sachs-backed company also offers financial services infrastructure to partners such as e-money operators and banks.

Ivory Coast is JUMO’s most recent market and its partnership with MANSA bank and MTN will see the company introduce a new short-term and small-scale loan product called VitKash, built-in collaboration with MANSA, and offered through MTN’s mobile money platform, which enables subscribers to perform financial transactions from their mobile phones, including saving, payments, and money transfer.

JUMO, in a press statement, said that VitKash will be available to micro-entrepreneurs who have lacked access to finance and are looking to develop a positive credit record through responsible loan management. “Entrepreneurs in the informal sector contribute an average of 60 percent to the GDP of West African countries, yet less than 15 percent of them have access to banks as a source of financing,” JUMO’s Country Manager for Ivory Coast, Bemah Kone, said. According to him, the roll-out of the innovative VitKash product in the region serves to provide the solution to this problem.

JUMO leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to build accurate credit scores and targeted financial products for people without formal financial identity, collateral, or credit record. This way, it securely provides analytics and insights to offer individualised financial services with high value and utility for customers.

JUMO is mainly focused on Africa and Asia and is currently active in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Pakistan, and Ivory Coast. Since its launch, JUMO claims to have disbursed over US$3 million in loans, has supported over 18 million customers and small businesses. According to Crunchbase, the startup has so far raised $156.7 million in funding. The digital financial company also has a client base that includes Uber, Barclays Bank, Ecobank, Tigo, Airtel, and now MTN and MANSA Bank.

JUMO expanded to Ivory Coast last year, driven by Ivory Coast’s high-potential market. According to the Ivorian telecom regulator, the country’s number of mobile money users rose to 20.8 million as of March 31, 2021, from 13.4 million as of the same time in 2018.

JUMO “is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for large banks to deploy capital to new market segments,” said Buhle Goslar, Jumo’s Africa CEO. The partnership with MANSA bank and MTN is the first of its kind for the company.