SC Ventures, the innovation Fintech investment and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, has entered into an agreement with Yabx, a company incubated by Comviva and part of the Mahindra Group, to address the need for responsible consumer finance in Africa.

According to the companies, Africa has over 700 million mobile wallets, and about 450 million bank accounts but access to formal credit remain severely constrained due to poor credit infrastructure and the slowly evolving risk appetite of financial services players, especially traditional banks.

The partnership will leverage the introduction of new, disruptive Fintech into emerging markets across Africa, with digitisation fuelled by COVID-19.

SC Ventures and Yabx have issued a joint statement, part of which reads: “Nimble future-ready technology, data analytics combined with a deep understanding of banking will reduce the cost of delivery of innovative credit products, thereby widening inclusion across underserved segments in Africa where it is needed most. Given the scale and the complexity of the opportunity, SC Ventures and Yabx have taken a collaborative approach to jointly address the challenge.”

According to the statement loans will be provided to customers for specific purposes like education and skill development “using an innovative data-driven scoring and analytics engine that has been built with rich experience from African markets.”

These loan products will be initially launched in Uganda and then subsequently expanded to other countries in Africa.

Jiten Arora, Member SC Ventures said, “We are excited at the prospect of using a data-driven, technology-enabled partnership model to serve the underbanked through purpose-driven loans in Africa, a continent for which we have a deep understanding and a strong commitment towards.”

Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO at Comviva, commented, “Yabx has seen exponential growth over the past one year, and we will continue to invest in its mission to serve millions of consumers and MSMEs in emerging markets who have limited traditional sources of funding available to them.”

Rajat Dayal, CEO at Yabx, added, “This partnership further bridges the gaps in the current market, driving digital innovations and bringing significant benefits to the underserved population of Africa.”