A few days ago, Village Capital published a shortlist of companies for it's PayPal powered fintech Africa 2018 program.
The program that was announced towards the end of last year targeted Sub-Saharan Africa companies and has a total of 12 shortlisted companies from Kenya (4), Ghana (1), Nigeria (3) and Uganda (4).
The shortlisted companies from Uganda are Patasente, Mazima Retirement Benefits, Numida and Ensibuuko.
Judging from the list, the program is looking for companies aimed at providing solutions that can enable credit scoring as well as establishing a credit history for users.
"While much progress has been made in the payments arena, access to critical services such as insurance and pensions remains lacking," part of the program overview.
It also adds that "fintech companies face regulatory barriers and infrastructure challenges that prevent their growth and expansion."
The shortlisted companies will undergo workshops in the first two weeks of March and the top two will walk away with USD 50,000.
One of the selected companies, Mazima Retirement Plan was among the Founders Top 10 list we released last year after garnering over 1000 subscribers who, between them, had saved over UGX. 700,000,000 ($190,000) under just two years.