The partnership between SC Ventures and Yabx is leveraging rapid?digitization in the financial sector of Africa to increase access to credit for the underbanked across the continent

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SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s fintech investment and ventures arm has partnered with fintech startup Yabx to enable consumer loan financing in Africa.

Yabx transforms consumers’ mobile money data into financial footprint profiles using machine learning, thus, reaching out to customers who do not have access to traditional finance. Africa has a widespread alternative financial system, with over 700 million mobile wallets registered on the continent.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 55% of adults have an account, whereas 33% of the population owns a mobile account rather than access to traditional banking services. At the same time, access to traditional credit options remains severely constrained due to poor credit infrastructure.

SC Ventures and Yabx have taken a collaborative approach to address the challenge. Innovative?data analytics tools are combined with a deep understanding of traditional banking processes through this partnership. The collaboration aims to reduce the cost of innovative credit products, widening financial inclusion across underserved segments in Africa.

Loans will be provided via unique Africa-specific products for various purposes like education and skill development. The application assessment and approval will be enabled by innovative data-driven scoring and analytics engine built with rich experience from African markets.

The products will be initially available in Uganda to subsequently expand to other African countries.