SCF #8
Clic.World
by

Social Financial Eco-System

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Budget request:
$
*
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Products & Services

1. Clic Payments
This platform allows peer2peer transfers, merchant payments, Bulk payments and Collections. It puts the user in control of the entire payment cycle

2. Savings and Peer-to-Peer transaction platform
Allows the creation of community or group based micro saving accounts to form a social banking eco-system, directly integrated into existing bank’s core banking platform. Ideal for SACCO’s, savings clubs, farmer cooperatives etc.
It is provided with wallets that allow secure and cost effective p2p multi-currency transactions and payments both locally and cross border with forex facility and access to various international remittance platforms.

3. SME Merchant focused Business Hub (micro ERP)
Our Business Hub allows easy to use access for the MSME space to take part in the emerging digital economy with basic business management including B2B2C online trading, order fulfilment and inventory management, payroll, basic accounting and transport management.

4. Agri business platform with fully integrated farm management

5. Digital Identity Management

6. Third party integrations into the eco system
Users can access the platform through multiple channels - QR cards, feature phones, smart phones, and web portal

We provide a high level of data access to stakeholders. We collect data as the users interact with the different services. This data is available to GF to inform your decision making
We are making effective use of blockchain and AI/ML technologies to reduce cost and increase security and scalability

For a more detailed overview of the Clic.World value proposition see attached document.

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Previous Project(s)
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Progress so far
Goals

Our goal is to start executing the various opportunities in our Social Banking pipeline for Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia starting in Q4 of this year. The existing pipeline projects should be delivered over the next 24 months.

To get there, we request a budget of  
$
*
  to:

• Profesional UI/UX design for all apps, dashboards and the various marketplace websites ($50k)
• Implementation of a privacy side chain and smart contracts (we will engage Slingshot/ZkVM and Satoshi PENDULUM) ($100k) *Key issue for us with the banks going forward.
• Security audits and penn testing ($20k)
• General branding and company website re-development ($10k)
• XLM funding of around 100 000 wallets for various pilots to do PoC for farmer organizations ($50k) Once pilots go into production we have factored the XLM funding into the business case.

*the issue of the cost of XLM funding for wallets - specifically where we are working with financially excluded people - is a major problem for us and is something we hope will be addressed by Stellar soon!

Additional information

Problem and Solution


We are addressing the following 3 basic problems facing financial inclusion in Africa:

1. Problem One - the traditional banking model is wrong
Banking in African society is predominantly social and communal. As a result the existing capitalistic banking model does not work and are not trusted - one of the key reasons for many to be "unbanked" and preferring cash.
Solution - we developed the "Social Banking" financial model based on the existing informal banking practises, and built a micro Core Banking System around this model, integrated to the Stellar Blockchain. With this we are now building the pan African Social Financial Eco-system

2. Problem Two - the cost of banking, remittances and payments are too high.
The other main reason why cash is still the predominant method of payment is due to the high cost of transactions.
Solution - with Stellar, sending money like email at almost no cost is the only solution, and thats why Stellar is fundamental to the Clic solution.

3. Problem Three - payments and remittances are becoming commodities at zero cost, putting the business case based on these at risk
With payments and remittances going to zero the existing business case based on transaction fees will be obsolete with the next 18 months
Solution - 1) using the Stellar Blockchain we are reducing the operating cost of transaction with at least 80% and 2) develop value added products such as the SME business hub, the marketplace and farm management system to create new revenue streams, all integrated to the Stellar Blockchain.


Target Market


Our three main target segments are as follows:

1. Agriculture value chain participants, i.e farmers, input provider and related participants makes up more than 60% of the economic activity in most African countries
2. MSME businesses - these micro, small and medium businesses makes up almost 80% of the trading activities in Uganda
3. Diaspora - these diaspora communities accross the world represent the majority of money inflows into Africa.

Due to the unique circumstances we are operating under it is very difficult to accurately do market research as indicated below. In reality we have found where such research have been done in the past it had a very low level of reliability. Our understanding of our market segments are based on more than a decade of direct involvement in these segments by members of the Clic.World team in Rwanda, Uganda, DRC Congo, Sierra Leonne, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia amongst others.

Revenue Model


Our revenue model is based on the following revenue streams:

- Monthly membership fees
- Billers Commision (Umeme, NWSC, PayTV)
- Remittances (Forex Spread)
- Cash-out Revenue
- Value Add Revenue Share (Partners)
- Big Data Revenue
- Marketplace commision

A full 5 year revenue and cashflow forecast as well as our pricing model for each revenue stream is available under NDA due to confidentiality agreements with some of our partners


Market Research


Firstly, a comment on industry and market research in Africa - with the majority of research into "finacial inclusion" and the "unbanked" driven by the need to chase doner funding we are finding most of the published statistics are not always aligned with what we experience on the ground. We can use Uganda, where we have reasonable date as an example - with a population of 40m, there are around 2000 registered informal social financial groups, with total members of between 15m to 18m. Our target is to get a 10% market share of that. We used a similar analysis in Kenya and Tanzania, and have set a target of 3m members between these 3 coountries over the next 18 months. Our business development pipeline for the 3 countries have already just over 3m, with 1m already in progress, so we believe this to be very realistic.

Threats & Opportunities


Our biggest challenge still stay the volitile regulatory space, but with our first approval as a Virtual Asset Service Provider in Uganda, and current positive engagements in Tanzania and Kenya we are seeing this risk being reduced.

Providing a cost effective digital cash-less solution the "last mile" for the unbanked is one of our biggest opportunities, and combing this with digitisation of the agriculture sector is going to drive a big part of our business case


Competition


We have a number of both traditional competitors (Beyonic, Interswitch, MFS etc) and fintech competitors (Xente, Leaf, etc)

These competitors typically offer only components of out total solution. We believe very much in partnerships though and have in fact partnered successfully with a number of potensial competitors.

We see Stellar blockchain as a major competitive advantage, because most of our competitors still deliver transactions over traditional infrastructure.

Our value add services and total end-to-end integrated soltion is our main advantage.


Marketing & Sales


We reach our target audiance mainly through direct engagement with apex bodies, such as farm organizations, off-takers, and value chain control bodies. There's very little value in direct social media marketing as such. By using these organisations we onboard members in blocks rather than individually.

Resources & Relationships


A key relationship for us is our strategic partnership with the ABC Banking Group in Kenya.


Pitch deck
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Deliverables
First Deliverable

With our integration with ABC Bank Kenya and Equity Bank Tanzania now complete and our integration with ABC Bank Uganda in progress we can finally start executing on the various opportunities in our pipeline over the next 2 years.

Tanzania - with our partner DMA we wil start rollout of the social banking platform under 650 000 farmers to enable them to start saving for their farm inputs (seeds, fertilizer etc), order these on our marketplace and get credit from the bank.

Kenya - we have signed up a large agriculture value chain where we will  1) provide digital bank accounts for around 1.2m unbank farm workers 2) provide farm management system to 500 000 farmers and enroll 35 000 retailers on the marketplace and to act as banking agents using our Stellar POS.

Uganda - We have a pipeline of 200 farm organisations and Saccos that are being digitised under ABC Bank Uganda, and our Clic2Go wallet/market/payment product will be officially launched in September, where we will target mainly SME traders and shops.

Somalia - we are setting up a P2P mobile wallet solution of 4 banks as well as a marketplace to facilitate trade between Uganda, Kenya and Somalia.

While these activities are mostly covered by the existing business case and agreements with our local partners case we need funding for the budget items mentioned above to be able to deliver effectively on these objectives.

Team

Andre van Zyl - Co-Founder Strategy and Product Development

I am a visionary, innovator, thought leader and social entrepreneur who’s past experience includes owner of a start-up that developed the first commercial PC based, fully integrated, accounting system for the South African market in 1985, IT Director for President Insurance, a South Africa insurance company, and 10 years with the Burmah Castrol Group and later BP as Global Business Solutions Architect and International Program Manager for a number of large scale business transformation projects across 32 countries.


After leaving BP I started Oakridge Business Solutions, a business consulting and Knowledge Management company in the UK, before returning to Africa to open offices in Rwanda, DRC (where I developed a conflict mineral traceability solution) and Uganda, where I co-founded Clic.World Social Banking 6 years ago, responsible for the strategy, technical architecture and design of this Stellar blockchain based social financial eco-system.
I am very passionate about economic development in Africa in general, and believe strongly in the potential of the the new emerging digital economy to unlock the potential of Africa and its people. Environmental issues, nature conservation and healthy, sustainable food production are my other passions and in my spare time I enjoy photography and exploring the African bush with my family.