Source: APO – Report:
By Andris Kan̄eps, CEO – Watu (https://WatuAfrica.com).
Ten years ago in Mombasa, our work began with a simple but ambitious question: What would happen if more people in the informal economy had access to the tools they needed to earn a stable income? The answer, as we have learned over the past decade, is not merely individual benefit. It is an economic transformation.
Today, millions of people rely on motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and smartphones to participate in the fast-growing digital and service economies. These assets enable transportation of people and goods, facilitate payments and logistics, and connect entrepreneurs to customers, suppliers, and opportunities. Yet for a very long time, access to such assets was limited to those who could meet strict, formal credit requirements. These criteria excluded the majority of working people.
Over the past decade, Watu has expanded to eight African countries and two in Latin America, supporting more than 5 million customers whose livelihoods underpin urban movement and economic circulation. What we have learned from working so closely with this sector is that entrepreneurship in these markets is rarely optional. It is how families pay school fees, build houses, and support communities. It is work rooted not in risk, but in resilience.
The journey has not been straightforward. Our evolution from table banking to mobility financing, and later to digital connectivity, was not the result of a fixed strategy but of observation and adaptation. Customers demonstrated that owning an income-generating asset, particularly a motorcycle, provided a more powerful and immediate uplift in earnings compared to receiving a small loan. Later, as smartphones became essential infrastructure rather than luxury items, we expanded into device financing. In both mobility and connectivity, the principle remains the same: access to the right tools unlocks the ability to earn, to plan, and to progress.
But scale has also brought lessons. Financial inclusion is only meaningful when the outcomes are positive and enduring. We have witnessed economic shocks, income volatility, and regulatory transitions that tested both our customers and our model. These moments forced us to strengthen how we assess affordability, communicate obligations and risk, and support customers during periods of unexpected hardship. Responsible growth demands rigour and that we learn as fast as we expand.
The broader economic landscape is shifting, too. Across Africa and emerging markets globally, three transitions are redefining how people work and move.
First, the transportation sector is gradually electrifying. Electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers offer lower operating costs, more predictable margins, and environmental benefits, provided they are supported with the right infrastructure and financing models.
Second, payments are becoming increasingly digital. Mobile money ecosystems are not only facilitating transactions. They are generating valuable economic visibility and creating credit pathways where none existed before.
Third, informal work is gaining structure. Through technology, gig platforms, and digital identity, workers who were once invisible to financial systems are becoming legible and therefore financeable.
These transitions represent a fundamental shift in how economic participation operates. They come with a clear challenge: systems must keep pace with the speed of the people who rely on them.
Looking ahead to our next decade, the focus must therefore move from broadening access to accelerating upward mobility. A motorcycle or smartphone is no longer the endpoint of inclusion. It is the starting point. The questions we now ask ourselves include: How do we help customers advance from their first asset to their second, and eventually toward business expansion? How do we use data to help them anticipate income shocks before they occur? How do we collaborate with regulators, manufacturers, and development partners to ensure that new technologies, such as electric mobility, translate into real economic benefits?
These are not abstract concerns. They represent the next frontier of financial inclusion, where access is paired with long-term capability and where short-term opportunity evolves into sustainable progress.
Across every market we serve, we see individuals who are resourceful and determined, working hard to improve their lives and those around them. Their efforts generate employment, enable services, and keep cities moving. The question now is not whether they can build the future. It is whether the financial, regulatory, and technological infrastructure around them will be ready to keep pace.
Watu’s role is to help ensure that the answer is yes. As we step into our second decade, our commitment is to scale responsibly, to innovate boldly, and to stay closely connected to the realities of the entrepreneurs who power our economies. Their success is not simply evidence of inclusion. It is evidence of acceleration.
If there is one lesson that stands above the rest, it is this: when you give hardworking people the tools to build opportunity, they do not stand still. Neither should we.
– on behalf of Watu.
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