Meet The CEO: Denis Musinguzi of FURAHA

In this episode, we are joined by Denis Musinguzi, the CEO of Furaha. He discusses the intersection of education and financial inclusion, sharing his insights on building a future for education and ensuring that no one is left behind.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

And one hundred and seventy eight hundred years we're bringing the Good Morning Africa podcast. Good morning Africa. Welcome aboard your parents and everything business in Africa. I am with a done for more followers on Twitter. I'd just like to welcome you to the Good Morning Africa podcast. We're very, very happy to have you. You will introduce yourself and start with telling us what to do when you're not being a CEO.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Okay, thank you, Ruth. Uh yeah, my name is Dennis Musinguzi. Um heading the Furaha FinSub Uganda company in uh in here, Kampala. We're a FinTech um that provides uh purpose-based uh credit services to Ugandans, uh specifically uh around education and school fees. Um and what your question to your question, what I do when I'm not uh when I'm not running the company, it's uh I think the main one is trying to make a difference socially. Um been largely driven by that from in my work, my previous work. So my work blends into my hobbies in many ways. But uh mostly you know community stuff, community work um in different facets um around women empowerment, um especially around you know agriculture. So we do a bit of that in my spare time around coffee, um but also helping uh you know vulnerable uh vulnerable groups. So you know through some non-profit uh organizational affiliations, we we do some work, volunteer work, um around you know disadvantaged groups, such as uh I think most recently you know we did something with uh uh in Tinder School with Blind. Um we sort of melded a lot of the of that. We we I lean more into children. I think it's also based on uh my day-to-day work, but yeah, I lean into uh more of helping uh kids get an opportunity in any shape or form. So in my in my in my other life, um I'm still doing a bit of that, but mostly looking at how I can create impact and yeah, just generally uh trying to live a healthy, happy life.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Okay, so talk to us about your journey to becoming a CEO. What's that been like?

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, so it's um I think if you you're staying away from the title because I don't think it has been a journey to being a CEO, I think it has been a journey to say. Um I've had I've had um many years in um digital finance, in telecoms, um, you know, building products and innovations, um, but also you know, working with trying to build partnerships. And these are not just uh in Uganda, this is cross-border, so experience around you know international remittances, uh you know, payments, um, but then most recently of course in digital lending. And you know, from that experience, um sort of walking away from that, one thing that really stood out was while other elements of that business have evolved, so payments have gotten better, you know, international remittances have gotten better, other services like that have gotten better. The one that has actually, you know, become has not really taken off is you know access to meaningful credit in lending. Um, and that's because you know credit services as a whole has always been too exclusionary and also a bit too rigid. You look at uh traditional finance, you know, you have to you have to prove your wealth to the to the banks and traditional financing to be able to get access to that. And that in itself is already excluding a large part of the community, but you know, everyone has a mobile phone, everyone can make a payment. Yeah, everybody can send money. Um everyone has access to financial services in some shape or form, except credit. And I think that's what stayed with me. Um so sort of stepping into uh the fintech space with Faraha, uh the the the idea, the purpose for that was trying to address that problem. And I I believe we've we're on our way to doing that with what we provided here with uh with our purpose-based uh solution for school fees.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

I know you've already hinted on why Faraha was uh founded, but what was that that moment that made you think, look, I am doing this, I have seen the problem, and I think I have the solution.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yeah, so uh the the what the tri the the trigger so to speak, yeah. Um yeah, so you we've seen in Uganda we've seen a lot of parents struggle with paying school fees. We've seen also schools have to um you know compromise on how they provide education because they're not collecting enough of the funds that they need to operate on a yearly basis. But even just from a social uh interaction point of view, you've seen it when school fees cycles come around, everything tends to gravitate towards that. Even those that may not necessarily have kids ascending school. Um, but for me the real trigger has always been or has been that, you know, you get to that cycle and everybody's saying, oh no, it's school fee season, it's school fee season, okay, I'll I'll I'll I'll do this later after I've sorted out school fees. And businesses have been affected the same. You know, of course, you find that some people are taking out more credit to do that, others are spending less on what they would normally spend on because now they're using uh they're transferring that that to cover school fees or education. Um, and yet this is something that comes around every single year, three times a year, comes around. But you find a lot of people are getting it feels like they're getting caught by surprise. And I don't think it was initially I thought it was that, that people are just not planning properly and whatever. Um but it's yeah, I think it's more of a case of of timing because you know the schools, the school cycles don't necessarily match up to the schedules of people getting payments or salaries or whatever it may be. And for me that one realization was critical. But I think what drove it home is I've been well, you know, uh me, like me, like uh like any like many others, or we've had similar experiences of where you've been kicked out of school because the fees are repaid, and I've also been on the receiving end of having kids being not being able to attend school because of that. So there's a realness about it, you live that experience. But understanding that listen, it's not necessarily the parents don't want to send their kids to school, it's because the way it's structured is they have to make do with what they've got, and if they can't find means, then it's going to be a struggle. So for me, that was like, okay, that's that's the trigger. What can we do? We have uh we have companies that have funding, you have parents who have access to mobile devices, more parents have mobile devices than they do bank accounts, and they have deeds to send kids to school. So, how do we put all of this together? And that was the starting point, and that's what uh you know brought about the whole uh for our uh proposition to the market. We are here to help parents get their kids to school, and we're here to help schools make sure they provide quality education to their kids without having to be strained on finances for both. So that's that's what sort of brought it about.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Okay, I I'm probably going to pre-empt. Um, I know you've been here maybe yeah, so what is like your biggest um not reason but like when this started to actually become like a real thing? You've made the someone who's taking out the first loan. Um when did it hit you that you are not just it's not just an idea that was on a laptop but now it's an actual service and why did that that feel like the first student who took out a loan or the first school that came and said look, I think we are signing on to take on your services, or we are grateful that you know there's a service like this.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Right. So uh I think we've been we've been I think just we've been operational for for just over two years, yeah. Um we dispersed our first loan in uh July of 2024, and for us that was a monumentous occasion because it had taken a lot of work, about a year of work prior, to set up everything. So from uh being a Ugandan company because we were just able to Uganda, we're fully Ugandan. So that whole setup, the technology piece, getting the teams uh set up, getting the the whole operation up and running, um, was critical for us. But none of it would have mattered if we were not able to service the customer. So in Jouai, when we had the first loan taken, for that was a wow moment because we're like, okay, it has worked. Um a unique thing about our product, and I think it's something that I should have touched on, is you know, we're not like any other uh digital loan that you have in the market where you're providing cash to the individual that's taking it, that's borrowing it. We through our partners have built a system where the money is paid directly to the school. And you don't have any other service in the market that provides that. And our very unique through our partnerships that a parent can come to us on their phone digitally through the app or UCD code and request for a loan. Sign up and request for a loan, and that loan will be dispersed in a matter of seconds to their school. And for that parent, that's such a relief. And that was the expectation we had when we said on the first loan. So when the first loan happened, um we were very excited, but what was even more exciting was what happened after that. So it's it sort of started to snowball a little bit. So we saw more loans coming in, more loans coming in. And I think for me what hit it, what hit home was um a customer who called because you know many customers we were calling and saying, you know, thank you for taking along with us. I hope your service was adequate and if there's anything you want us to change, you can do that. Um but the one that caught me off guard was a parent who actually came to us uh physically to where we were where we were located at the time, and came to us with their kids to say thank you for the service. And that was you, we had some emotional people in the office, but that was such a moving moment for us that it gave us such motivation to say, yes, I think we're on the right path with what we're doing. And uh I think for me that's that's what's been driving us ever since. Knowing that you've helped uh parents overcome a major part of their family well-being in terms of looking at their kids. You know, nothing ranks above you know giving their kids an education, you know, compared to just having them healthy and their well-being. Education is a strong, strong number two for any parent, making sure that their kid is you know a well-rounded and well-taking care of individual or child. So for me, yeah, that was uh that was the point. I think from then on there was no turning back. Yeah, and we're equally motivated to try and get to as many parents as we could. So the journey and and I think a quick milestone I wanted to mention is um you know that motivation has driven us to about recently about 20,000 kids that were in February. We had uh we we managed to support about 20,000 kids. Uh at the time that we're speaking now, we've managed to have another 5,000 kids on top of that. So for us that is that's what it's all about. Um, just creating the real impact, making a change, improving the lives of parents. And we do know the schools themselves have approached and said, you know, it's such a good solution for their for their parents, actively communicating that to them. Um, but even for them to say that now we have uh a better position in terms of the funds coming in in order to provide the quality education that the kids need. So yeah, I think for me that was that was the moment.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Okay. Also, I the last time we were here, you had uh um a collaboration with a number of of schools uh who are I think taking on the service. Um backwards forward, are we going to see a product that's cute to just schools? Because while we know parents have uh cash flow issues, so do schools. Uh we see the big uh financial companies always uh advertising the beginning of every uh academic year or academic term. They tell you we have uh loans for schools, you can get up to 500 or billion shillings for education capacities, and then you know we'll take it off when your kids pay. Um you are solving the big way right now. You're saying, look, there's cash flow coming in because there's this a facility where that's helping uh the students pay on time. Uh but the other the other uh bigger question is do the education facilities also come to mind for you uh in what terms of what you can do for them?

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah, so we we're definitely going to scale out our operations, but I think I just also wanted to uh bring bring a point clear. It's as it stands now, we do still we do still have a big challenge with parents and kids going to school. Um there is I think there is a study that was done by UNICEF that said, you know, about 6% of kids that start their primary one end up being their senior six, which is about a 12-13 year span of education. That's a huge drop-off. Um a major driver for that drop-off is access to finance. Um we feel that that problem is still far, far away from being anywhere resolved, and I think that is our that's our drive right now. Um I think also there's a there's another study that was done by the monitor that had it sort of place it at about 10% or about 9% of kids that drop off, and I think they looked at a particular set of kids who they tracked, individuals, about 1.9 of them in P1, come to Senior 6, you know, 12 years later, and it's less than 150 that are sitting for those exams. And we feel that is a big challenge that we need to we need to try and address, play our part. Um, and I'm not negating anything that the the schools and the service providers need because they do have needs. I think on our end is to put them in a position where they're able to service whatever credit that they require, because they do have options, unlike the parents that we're talking about. The businesses do have options through traditional financing and whatnot. But yes, we we are a business that is evolving. We are opening up to different opportunities. The primary one is trying to address the school fees. There will be other sectors that we even want to consider doing. So, you know, things like your alternative energy sector, uh, e-mobility sector, you know, people who are looking for financing to empower themselves in a way that you know adds value to their lives, um, just like we're doing with education. That's that's who we are. You know, we want to build a purpose-based uh operation that is targeting people that need the real help and makes real impact.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Okay.

unknown 18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Okay. I know one of the big questions that always come with anything finance is the risk management or the risk. Yeah, uh there's a you know, Banco Vicando usually publishes it's non-performing loans, and there's always a fear that when you have a new product, especially in the realm of finance, there's going to be some defaulting. So, what does risk management look like on your end? Because while you are providing uh you're the middle guy when money is going to you and you're selling it to someone else, but you're still in the middle of the risk. How do you ensure that this risk is managed?

SPEAKER_02 18:48

So that's a good question. So we we it's actually from the onset in the product design, the product construct, the risk is already embedded in there. Because, like I said, this is a of course a mobile digital one. Um we are using national ID to identify who you are, but also where the funds are going, they're going directly to the school. We're not doing cash loans. And I think a lot of the risk that you see in the market is sort of driven by that factor that when you provide people cash, you do not have visibility of where that cash is going. So I will come to, I can come to anybody to borrow cash, a mobile operator or in a bank, and ask for a loan. And if I meet the criteria that they have and they give me the cash, right? And tomorrow I have to, you know, maybe contribute to some funeral services for a relative. And those are the only funds I have on me. And yet I intended to use that for school fees. That's already impacting the how I use my cash. But the the person who provided you the funds has no visibility of that, and they have to bake that into their risk model, and that's why you see a lot of them are a lot a lot more pricier in terms of interest, because there is no there's no guarantee that you're going to use the money for what you you're requesting it for. So, unlike the unlike those, Furaha provides that guarantee from the onset. This money is only going to school fees. But also, we do not um in our model, so like for Ruth, if you come into our system and I give you a limit of one million, but your school fees is actually 800, what you have to pay, you're only going to be able to take 800. You won't be paying a million shillings, you'll be paying 800. So that is already baked within the risk model that we operate. And on the other side, that allows us to be to provide more affordability for customers because it's guaranteed that this money is going to the purpose that is intended. So that's how we manage our risk as well. So from the onset, it's it's clear that this is going to the purpose that's intended for.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Final question. If I have two kids and my loan limit is 1.6 million, I have paid 800 for one child. Does the 800,000 remain on account for me to use it for another child? Or it's one one loan at a time?

SPEAKER_02 21:19

No, now so we we you're just your timing is perfect because I think by the time the recording goes out, this uh this this this will be this will be live. So we do do multiple kits, um, and we allow uh parents to take multiple loans within their limit for the number of kids that they want to take. So that feature is available, and and yes, we do that. I think it was uh it was something that we have been working on for a long time, and of course the market has made its voice heard and how it wants that. And I think that there are a few things that I need to speak to. One is again the the it speaks to the the trust and uh And confidence that the market has put in us because that's a major part of their feedback. Say hey, I'd like to pay for another child. And I think for us it's also been it's also been able to give us a sense of direction on how to prioritize for the market. So this feature is available. You can pay for multiple kids and up to up to four kids.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

That's a really good, you know, it's a really good addition because now you know if I have to send all the kids to school at once, at least you can you're sure you can make payments for quite a number of them and they should be stuffed at town. So that's kudos. Yeah, thank you. Well done. Well done. What are some of the changes we'd like to see in your industry? And that's fintech and education and financing, and that's really many things for you.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

It is. But we're also we're also very clear on what what we what industry we're working in, because it does cut across different um sort of different spaces. But I think firstly has been around um just the awareness in our market has been has had this stigma, of course, around you know, new companies coming in and providing loans and you know uh people really calling your relatives, friends, and everything asking you to play a loan. That in itself has built a very negative taste, aftertaste for for many for many users. I think it's largely because for for a long time that that part of the industry wasn't heavily regulated. But we're starting to see a lot of uh movement towards you know better regulation um with uh moneylenders and anybody who's trying to provide credit. I think we see strong regulation coming in from uh the central bank in terms of how they they treat, uh how they monitor and and guide uh people providing providing credit, especially your banks, your financial institutions. But even the moneylenders and the microfinance institutions and all of those entities that may not necessarily be directly uh regulated by central bank, we're seeing you know the Ministry of Finance coming in with some strong regulation around that. So for me that has been a big challenge because at the end of the day, you know, as a new company like Furaha, because we're only, you know, like I said, over two years old, in comparison to some of the other players, we're a baby. Um so but you're playing in a space where there's that stigma and people are very wary about new cut new products coming in. Um I think for me that's one. I think stronger regulation and I and it's we're on the we're on the pathway to that. Um, but we can see that it's still behavior is not something that you change overnight and perception as well. Um so that's one. Um the other one is also um partners in the fintech space um for very much have been operating asylums, right? So you have somebody who's focusing on his payment services, and he goes up, goes on and does a you know good job of growing his business, uh, growing his operations and scaling. You have somebody who's doing uh maybe just uh say payment transfers, um having their own sort of mobile mini wallet that they're operating, um, and building their own ecosystem around that, right? Payment for airtime, bundles, services, utilities, what have you. I think as an industry, there's something that they that we are missing out in not having partnerships because there are certain skill sets that different entities in them in the industry have that on their own are powerful, but as a collaboration open them up to different opportunities and different uh ways of serving customers. Because you know, you have a market where technology makes more of a social impact, developmental and social impact than just a lifestyle change. Yeah, right? Um unlike you know your Western or more developed economies where you know technology will come in to improve lifestyle. In this market or in you in developing countries, in lower developing countries, technology is coming to fill in gaps and address fundamental uh issues, you know, like I said, education, health, finance, inclusion, financial inclusion. So it's it's it's important that I think as an industry the the view, the vision should change or should alter to look at how we can be better together with partnerships. And you know, for what we're doing here is an example of that. Um we we've brought all of these partners together to provide a service that is meaningful, impactful, and and can scale. And I think that for me, I think is one of the things that the industry also should mindset should change because if they do that, then you know sky's the limit. So I feel like that's a that's a bit of a challenge in how the industry is going to grow in itself. So for me, those are the two that I can pick out.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Opportunities that you're seeing that um in the fintech educational space, what are those opportunities that you are seeing that people are yet to wake up to?

SPEAKER_02 27:45

So it's it's not just education, but I think again, just sort of stepping away from education, let's say it purpose-driven um financing, purpose-driven uh builds. Um, and I think for me, a lot of the industry has been built on you know providing sort of what are called vanilla services, right? So you'd have uh if I want a cash loan, there are so many operators that I can go get. If I want to make a payment for school fees, there are multiple or graduators that are providing that. Um if I want to pay my utilities, all of so on and so forth, you know, there are multiple people that provide that. Um but you're not seeing people go into saying, can we build something that is purposeful and impactful? Um I think for for me the opportunities are looking at the Ferrari model, you know, um, what else can you do in terms of purpose? Industry, scale in the industry, not just education. What can you do in insurance? What can you do in uh alternative energy? Yeah, what can you do in transport? Right? Agriculture. Yeah, what can you do in agriculture that is based on that? And that again, like I said, my previous point is a lot of that is driven by economies of scale and partnerships, because you may not have the capabilities to deliver the full end-to-end, but you and the three other and three others may be able to do that and in such a meaningful way that it actually allows you to scale that operation and move on from whatever baseline operation you are working with at the time and allows the company to build itself and maybe even acquire a new set of skills, skill sets, and a whole new set of you know opportunities open up as well. So I think for me that is the key, I think, for that I look at and say, you know, if if um if the industry can look at how it can be scaled out to other other in other other services, other service industries, not just education. I think education is is one very strong area, but health is another, insurance is another, transport is another, agriculture, we're we're a largely agricultural, you know, uh company, I'm sorry, country. Um, you know, what can what what impact can be done on that front? So I think for me those are the opportunities that present ourselves, uh presented to us uh currently.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

And another kind of hint hints on the expansion plan, but what does the expansion plan for Furaha look like in the next let's technology moves fast, I'm not going to say five years. It does. I'm gonna say in the next two years, what does the expansion plan look like?

SPEAKER_02 30:31

So um, I mean we've committed ourselves immediately our immediate plans are to scale our education portfolio. Uh you have over you know 10 million kids uh in education. We want to do a bit uh to try and reach as many of those as possible. A lot of that, of course, again is driven by our ambition and our partners' uh commitment to getting there. Um but also you know scaling out into different industries. I've mentioned, you know, you know, insurance is one, health is one, you know, um alternative energy is one. Definitely spaces where we feel we can provide purpose-based credit, you know, for people who want to want to uh improve their lives in that sense. You have as an example, I'll say we see a lot of um we see a lot of uh e-bikes now in the market. Um people are moving away from your natural aspirated uh motorbikes and into e-bikes for for various reasons. I think the main one of course is also affordability and sustainability because those are a lot more easier to manage, um both as a business and also individually. So, you know, uh that's an area that we feel would add more value as purpose-based in terms of either asset financing and allowing people to access those, uh allowing people to access funds to buy those to buy those bikes in a way that is is not intrusive and fits within their lifestyle, like I said. So yeah, alternative energy is one place that we want to go through as well. Um but um yeah, there'll be more to come and we'll share those details. But yeah, there's a lot more work happening in the next, in the next, I'll say the next three years, you'll see a lot more coming from Fora in terms of scaling out from education. But education is our primary, it's our passion project, it's the one that we want to get we want to get out and about because that that that creates some real impact for people who need it right now.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

I'm sensing that Uganda is not the only market that you're going to be in. Is there have you already started looking at other similar markets uh that you know I know entry to the African market is not the easiest because we have different regulatory landscapes, but are you looking at other markets that uh you can um take this service to?

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Yes, so um I'll just speak on to you know our vision. Our vision has has always been to you know create a solution, an African solution that solves African problems. Um we want to unlock financial opportunities for the missing middle in any community that we get into. The missing middle in this sense is people that we've classified as people as maybe good enough to have access to a bank account or some form of digital services, but not necessarily good enough to learn to through traditional uh traditional channels. Um that's our main mission, and that we want to scale that yes, to African markets. Um we believe that you know purpose should be matched with the appropriate financing, uh, growth and development of any society that we're in. So, yes. Um, is also to be one of Africa's leading purpose-driven uh financing platforms. So, yes, we are scaling out to uh regional. Uh we're already working on doing that in the region, South Africa region, where we find you know there are a lot of similarities in terms of some of the challenges that they're facing, especially around education, health and insurance. So, yeah, we were scaling out regionally uh over the next few years. I think we intend to be in about five markets in the next um four to five years. Sounds very ambitious. It is, that's not talked about enough.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

I I I get that. Uh and I know financial inclusion is such a huge, huge, huge, huge deal. And you know, we're grateful that Fora is not only um has caught ahead to make you know education as inclusive as finance is for for finance to work together with education is a is a really big deal. Yeah, I I'm really really excited for for the things that you do here.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

So we so I'm uh really motivated, excited. I think uh like I said, there's there's there's no better feeling in the world than uh you know the parents stopping here on the side of the road to say thank you because they just so happen to see you wearing a full out shirt and say thank you for for the service. I use your service and you helped me. I think there is um there are very few things in this world that are as fulfilling as hearing those words from uh our customers. So we and that's what drives us. So we continue to do that, we continue to help to try and create an impact. And uh yeah, we'll hopefully we get to uh the 10 million kids that we want to help uh and uh yeah, help the country grow.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Thank you too. Thank you, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and I hope you enjoyed the episode.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

I did, thank you very much, and uh thanks for having me. It was a great pleasure talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

And a quick review of the other stories, the International Crime Police Organization Interpol has said a total of 444 billion dollars is estimated to have been lost globally to financial fraud in 2025. Interpol disclosed in March of 2026 on global financial fraud as a fraud release on mandate. The organization described the race on it.