{kountable Ltd., a technology-assisted financial solutions company, unveils a simple, new, cost effective way of supporting entrepreneurs to access funding in Rwanda.}
Rwanda made major leaps in getting credit, moving from 13th to 4th in the world (Doing Business Report 2015). However, needed is a platform to turn entrepreneurs’ social capital into a real asset that can be used to secure needed funding quickly at reasonable rates to purchase stock, or finance raw materials or inventory to help them grow their businesses even more.
Talking during a gathering with media in Kigali, Chris Hale, founder and CEO of kountable said “This is an opportunity to announce to all Rwandan entrepreneurs that there is now a solution designed specifically to meet their needs. The reason there is nothing else in the marketplace like it is that we listened and built it especially for you.”
The new IT-based solution will complement existing financial bodies and offer finance terms that are significantly better than what local banks and other sources of financing currently offer. This will be done through a technology-assisted social network-based platform accessible through kountable.com and a dedicated Android app to be launched this week. The kScore method greatly reduces origination costs (the costs of identifying entrepreneurs who qualify for financing), one of the most significant expenses associated with financing small and mid-sized entrepreneurs that gets passed on to you in the form of higher interest rates and fees.
By using a trade finance model normally only available to much larger businesses instead of lending, kountable is able to help SMEs procure the stock, raw materials or inputs they need to execute larger contracts without borrowing or requiring large amounts of collateral, and keep the risk associated with each transaction low. This serves to reduce costs and provides an attractive investment vehicle for US investors wanting to earn a healthy return while helping grow capacity, encourage local employment and strengthen the impact of the SME sector in emerging economies.
Local entrepreneurs who have worked with kountable have so far have been quite pleased with the rates and terms offered to them. Mr. Hale insists “Business opportunities flourish in this country. With some simple information about entrepreneurs and the specific deals they are looking to finance, we can help them execute much bigger and more profitable transactions. This helps keep business in Rwanda which might otherwise go to foreign companies and profit in the hands of local entrepreneurs who have the vision, talent, drive and relationships to put it to use to grow their businesses, hire more people, and become healthy engines of a thriving ecosystem of Rwandan SMEs that builds a strong, entrepreneurial middle class.”
The kountable platform will be officially launched on 30th of May 2015 at the Kigali Serena Conference Center. Over 150 local entrepreneurs will be introduced to how kountable can help them do more profitable deals, at the same time occasioning more networking among business operators and financial sector players.
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