More than Shs 220 billion has been paid out to 200,000 beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model (PDM) scheme via PostBank’s Wendi mobile wallet platform, over the last one and a half months.
Wendi was launched by PostBank in November 2023.
“The wallet centers on group savings, individual savings, transfers, payments, deposits, and withdrawals to drive financial inclusion within the unbanked and underbanked Ugandan communities,” said Ibrahim Kato, the bank’s Chief Retail Officer.
With many of the targeted beneficiaries of the PDM scheme falling in the unbanked and underbanked categories, Kato said the Wendi platform is best suited to serve them.
Started two years ago to help get thousands of Ugandan households out of poverty, PDM is a government strategy for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level.
“This speaks to the government’s aspirations of distributing funds securely and conveniently. With the Wendi wallet, one has full visibility, transparency, and traceability for all funds up to the last mile beneficiary,” Kato said.
He added that once the SACCO account is funded, SACCO leaders receive SMS alerts. Similarly, the beneficiaries get an alert when the PDM loan is disbursed to the beneficiaries’ wallets.
Wendi eliminates the need to travel long distances to open bank accounts or withdraw funds. Authorization of transactions as well as access to funds by beneficiaries is enabled from a mobile phone.
With the robust cyber security controls, the system is watertight when it comes to fraud.
“It went through rigorous security tests before deployment. The system has robust encryption and authentication technologies that ensure customer data privacy and protection throughout the customer journey right from onboarding to cash out,” Kato said.
Through Wendi, PostBank, one of the three government-owned financial institutions in Uganda, has served over 4,700 SACCOs and of these, 2,400 are PDM SACCOs. The bank currently has over 58 branches across the country, over 2000 agents, and has key strategic partnerships that allow it to serve clients beyond direct presence.