Country
Product Type: Risk Management - Credit Scoring
Sector: Finance Oriented
Project Country: Uganda
Compuscan
Compuscan is a specialist credit information technology company. Compuscan provides risk management solutions to its clients – these include mainstream banks, microfinance institutions, micro-lenders, utility companies, co-ops and credit unions.
Project Description
Compuscan proposed to build a rural agricultural finance credit bureau (Ground Up) for use by MFIs in the rural financing sector to capture data on credit transactions within the agricultural and broader microfinance sector in Uganda.
Project Update
Compuscan has unfortunately met regulatory framework challenges in Uganda affecting the project rollout, and has been exploring options in Mozambique and Zambia through conducting feasibility studies and engaging the respective countries Central Banks.
Key Learnings
In the case of Uganda, there was no objection for the project yet it was unclear on how to regulate the innovation. One proposal for such innovations would be to let them operate in regulatory “sandboxes” where innovation is allowed in closed testing environments. This would allow the regulators to observe and ‘learn’ about the innovations, whilst at the same time encouraging players in the market to pilot and launch new offerings to meet market needs.
A credit reference bureau is an important support function for any credit market and particularly important for smallholder farmers. By including agricultural information into the credit reference bureau, a richer picture can form of the credit-worthiness of farmers.