Ukheshe, AWS team up to help African Fintechs scale quickly
Pan-African Fintech enabler Ukheshe Technologies is a member of the AWS Partner Network and uses this relationship to scale on demand and engage territories that require fast and secure transactions.
Specifically, Ukheshe uses Amazon ECS or Amazon Elastics Container Service to “run highly secure, reliable containers, enabling it to save up to 50 percent on computing costs with autonomous provisioning, auto-scaling, and pay-as you-go pricing.”
Amazon ECS integrates seamlessly with AWS management and governance solutions which are standardised for compliance.
Ukheshe President of Global Partnerships, Donovan Drew, said the company has enabled embedded finance solution Telkom Pay for South African telco Telkom. This solution is powered by Eclipse API which also enables cross-border remittance services.
Drew added, “The unicorns of Africa like Chipper Cash have selected our platform to scale at speed in territories across the globe with the ability to move cash effectively and efficiently, at a fraction of the cost banks typically charge. It’s these unique value propositions that provide cost effective financial inclusion offerings and encourage large African Fintech players like Sasai and MTN MoMo to scale with us.”
According to Drew the company has serviced 474,000 merchants, signed more than 50 enterprise deals, and grown its staff complement to over 100 people. “We do this through established networks and partners that provide sophisticated, personalised and scalable digital solutions. In the end, all of this supports Ukheshe’s move into servicing emerging markets where there is ample opportunity for mainstream institutions to ensure meaningful financial inclusion solutions for their customers.”
Henri Zietsman, Startup & Venture Capital Business Development Manager, “Ukheshe is on a remarkable growth path, and we are delighted to partner with them as they innovate on behalf of their customers. The AWS architected framework looks after the six pillars of success, including: security/regulation, resilience, scale, efficiency, sustainability, and of course, balances the pillars into costs.”
Ukheshe’s use of Amazon ECS allows financial services enterprises to leverage AWS Outposts to run containerised applications that require particularly low latencies to on-premise systems.
Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any connected site. “With Amazon ECS on Outposts, you can manage containers on-premises with the same ease as you manage your containers in the cloud. What makes this journey so exciting is AWS partners, including Ukheshe, are eligible to leverage AWS Activate to offer real industry-leading innovation.
New CIO at Ukheshe
In March this year Ukheshe appointed Darryn Botha as its Chief Information Officer.
According to the company, Botha’s role will include overseeing data security, maintaining a stable IT infrastructure, while enabling Ukheshe's business strategy and improving its ability to engage and collaborate with clients.
Botha said he looks forward to collaborating with the Ukheshe team and its clients in order to meet business goals, and drive value through the empowerment of staff. “There is an ongoing challenge, which I plan to meet head on, of attracting and retaining talented people, as well as creating a culture that allows our teams to thrive and deliver against tough business goals.”