Ukheshe has appointed Mark Dankworth as executive director of Ukheshe Africa. This comes at a time the need for a cashless society is a rising trend and strategic global imperative.
According to Global Findex, 1,7 billion adults remain unbanked. Sub-Saharan Africa, with approximately 350 million unbanked, accounts for 17 per cent of the global total according to the same report.
Dankworth says that since its inception in November 2018, Ukheshe has established that financial inclusion is vital for the overall growth and prosperity of the continent: “If the unbanked continue to have limited access to proper financial solutions, they remain barred from the majority of the continent’s economic activities. This, in turn, results in a reliance on limited retail opportunities, inability to access credit, and thus often paying more for goods and services.”
While Ukheshe has focused on South Africa, Dankworth adds that there are already opportunities underway for the micro-payment platform in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Botswana and Angola.
An industry veteran, Dankworth launched a Kenyan card business in 2013 and says that the payments industry has always excited him: “I saw how M-Pesa changed many lives in Kenya, and as a fully interoperable wallet solution, Ukheshe will undoubtedly change the lives of so many across the continent.”
Clayton Hayward, co-founder of Ukheshe, says that Africa represents immense opportunity, as well as significant challenges to address the legacy of an unbanked society: “We recognise that through our platform, we can assist in addressing social equality and boosting the growth of the lower- and middle-class brackets. We also know that we can, more importantly, play a vital role in the upliftment and improvement of the societies we work in.”
He says Dankworth is ideally suited to launch and grow Ukheshe Africa and looks forward to assisting in the success of the new entity.
The Ukheshe App is free, user friendly and easy to download for anyone needing to transact without a bank account.
