CapitalSavvy aims to provide affordable credit to small, micro and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in Africa through the power of the BSV blockchain, says Reginald Tumusiime, CEO & Founder of CapitalSavvy.
CapitalSavvy is a venture capital investment firm in Uganda which is trying to bring opportunities to local developers to help them find employment. Tumusiime noted that the group is now working with Swiss technology firm Monetix to launch a new lending solution that is completely digitised and is built on the BSV blockchain.
So the experience of applying for a loan to due diligence to the disbursement of funds is a full digital experience. We only interface with the clients at a due diligence level. Mobile money is a big thing in sub-Saharan Africa, and Uganda is no different, so our platform has also integrated with mobile money.
A needed change in credit for SMMEs
Tumusiime said that these solutions are timely and necessary as most banks in the country are not widespread and readily available. This means that many people, especially in rural areas, remain unbanked. This is compounded by low levels of education and lack of access to smartphones, he said.
That’s what drove the popularity we saw in mobile money, because you don’t need a smartphone to access financial services. Access to credit is very difficult and most of the big commercial banks have all sorts of requirements that are not met by most SMMEs.’
What we have tried to do through our partnership is to sort of be a bridge between the money in Europe and Africa – especially on our end in East Africa. Because of a relatively low interest rate environment in Europe we are able to mark that up and sort of get to a position where finance is a bit more affordable.
Building a business with the BSV blockchain
Tumusiime said CapitalSavvy also acts as an advisory firm to the public sector, highlighting how the BSV blockchain can help streamline processes.
‘What attracted me to BSV is the fact that it is very scalable. You can do quite a number of transactions in just a second. Secondly, it is very cheap. Again the partnership with Monetix exposed me a lot more to the power of BSV.’
I love the fact that the BSV blockchain has positioned itself as a blockchain that is solving for enterprise challenges and there is a lot of utility in that. And then of course there’s the fast transactions, scalability, security, and no downtime which really attracted me to the BSV blockchain.
Promoting further education in blockchain
Tumusiime said that one of the biggest hurdles still facing further blockchain adoption is Education, as you people are typically first exposed to the industry by speculative crypto assets.
What we are trying to do as a firm is to get into strategic partnerships, such as with the BSV Blockchain Association to create an academy in East Africa to help educate young developers.
And the nature of the developers we have is entrepreneurial and most of them are in the gig economy. So how do you create a curriculum that relates to their entrepreneurial abilities? So that’s a discussion we are continuously having with potential partners such as the BSV Association to sort of design a programme that is tailor-made.
Blockchain Innovation Programme
In August 2022, Capital Savvy launched a Blockchain Innovation Programme in partnership with the BSV Blockchain Association, a 10-week course aimed at encouraging people to become Bitcoin developers.
The programme was comprised of the three primitive courses currently offered by the BSV Academy, including:
Following the completion of the course, the developers from the initial cohort will be given an opportunity to pitch directly to Satoshi Block Dojo. One developer will then be selected to join the startup programme.
