MUKURU, a leading player in Zimbabwe’s remittance market, has achieved a significant milestone by processing US$2 billion in diaspora remittances annually, businessdigest can reveal.
Building on this achievement, the next-generation financial services company is now focusing on expanding its rural network to promote greater financial inclusion, according to Doug Tait-Knight, chief executive officer at Mukuru Zimbabwe Financial Services.
Currently, Mukuru serves a customer base split 60-40 between urban and rural areas.
Tait-Knight revealed plans to shift this ratio further toward rural communities, reflecting a commitment to reaching underserved populations.
“We are looking to strategically expand that with our own network and via partnerships,” he said.
“It is going to be a process to understand how we maximise the rural footprint for financial inclusion. It is difficult to crystal ball what’s going to happen over the next 12 months, but the locations that we have put up 50-odd in the last year are doing well.
“And so, we look to increase our network by a similar amount from our own network. I think that the split is going to be increasingly rural to make good on this financial inclusion promise.”
Tait-Knight said Mukuru aimed to reach the financially marginalised, reduce travel costs, and ensure transparency by eliminating hidden fees.
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The financial services company was recently awarded a deposit-taking microfinance institution licence by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The licence would enable Mukuru to expand its product offerings into areas traditionally dominated by banks.
Initially, the company planned to introduce value-added services, including payments for DSTV, airtime, and electricity.
“Moving forward, we are interested in solving for the demand that goes hand-in-hand with the financial inclusion piece,” the CEO noted.
“So, making payment for goods and services is one area that we will expand into. Savings products is another area that we can expand into. Finally, loans is an area that we want to look at.
“I think credit is a fundamental area of financial inclusion that has an accessibility question that we can address and those will be our main areas in the short to medium term that we want to move into.”
In terms of remittances, Mukuru has become a market leader from the corridor of South Africa to Zimbabwe, he noted.
“It is on the increase. We have seen a trend where there is a strong increase from outside of South Africa to Zimbabwe, in particular the UK to Zimbabwe,” Tait-Knight said.
“I think that we can confidently say that we are the market leader without giving away business secrets. The main point that I think that we want to get into is those remittances which are very material to our business and the country as a whole.
“I think we are talking about US$2 billion a year and increasing. The majority of those are collected in cash and there’s an opportunity to increase flexibility, increase access for people no matter where they are in the country and provide them with services so they don’t have to take risk on cash and incur costs with travel. That’s what we are looking to do this year.”
Mukuru, founded in 2004, had a goal of solving international remittances demand that was materialising over hyperinflation.
To date, Tait-Knight said the company had expanded to about 250 locations it owns and operates outside of its partnerships.
“The logical next step is to create the ease of collecting and receiving and transacting through digital channels,” he said.
