Indian firm in venture to broaden offer of digital financial services

TECHURATE Systems, an Indian global smart banking technology firm, has hinted on plans to partner the Zimbabwean Government in offering digital financial services and streamlining the unbanked enterprises as the country moves to grow its financial inclusion drive.

Zimbabwe has about 31 000 Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SACCOs), with a background in agriculture, housing, mining and fisheries and Techurate aims to bring them under a single database to be discernible.

Techurate intends to be at the forefront of streamlining these players, propelling the local financial inclusion drive and allowing underserved communities to access an array of benefits including credit, valuable data and insights that help optimise performance.

According to Techurate, the digitisation and streamlining of SACCOs and Cooperative societies has numerous benefits even for commercial banks and the wider financial sector as they will tap into created SACCOs database.

The provision will help banks with risk management, giving financial institutions latitude to opening new partnerships and investment opportunities with small enterprises.

Techurate is already in talks with several financial institutions in the country who are willing to tap into the amalgamated data of the SACCOs.

According to Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, the sector remains a vital segment of the Zimbabwean economy given that the country has over 3 million players in the SME segment.

The SME sector is a vital cog in Zimbabwe’s economic diversification as they create new industries, products and services at the same time reducing reliance on a handful of larger companies that dominate the market.

However, small businesses and cooperatives growth continue to be impeded by several challenges the major one being limited access to ‘patient’ capital raising options because of untraceable history.

Some have not been able to borrow because they do not have collateral and the initiative by Techurate will give traceability and track record to the small entities.

“99 percent of small business and cooperatives do not have any system for them to manage themselves including finances, we would want to digitalise cooperative societies, so that they have access to core banking system. We realised we should come up with a bundle of solutions for this segment of the economy.

“Techurate remains committed to supporting Africa’s digitisation journey and leveraging technology to unlock growth and prosperity for SACCOs, Cooperative Societies and other financial bodies across the country,” said Mr Tejaswi Tanjore, Techurate Vice President –for Africa Regional Sales in an interview.

He said the company provides innovative and futuristic digital banking solutions for this niche market.Techurate digital financial platform, also known as Tigiverse, provides core banking, credit management, business intelligence and reporting which is expected to help cooperatives and credit unions operate efficiently.

It has worked in several highly under-banked nations and has successfully leveraged the power of Digital in bringing a vast audience into the organised banking fold.

Efforts are currently underway by the Government to graduate small economic players into formal businesses and it has since moved to teach them about the important role of organisations such as the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ), Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) and the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ).

Techurate is an eight-year-old company and has been present in Zimbabwe since 2019, in the country and has partnered with organisations like Central Association of Co-operative Union (CACU), SYBYL in Kenya and other different regions in Africa.

FinScope Consumer Survey in 2014 discovered that 23 percent of Zimbabweans were financially excluded (did not use financial products to manage their financial matters) and eight percent relied only on informal financial services.-herald