awamo and its microfinance management solution are named “Landmark in the Land of ideas” 2015. The competition’s motto for this year is “Urban Space. Rural Space. Cyberspace!”. With this prize, the initiative Germany – Land of Ideas and Deutsche Bank award ideas and projects which successfully contribute to driving digital change. With its microfinance management solution awamo delivers a significant contribution for a connected world by improving access to microcredit and lowering interest rates for it in emerging markets.
Innovations for a connected world
In 2015 more than 1.000 scientific institutions, companies, start-ups and associations with their respective projects have applied for the program. An independent jury has chosen 100 awardees in different categories.
“Amongst economy, culture and society the prize winners help people to cope with the challenges of changing environments which result from a more and more digitized world. Germany’s connected future needs this creativity and readiness to assume risk” says Jürgen Fitschen, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Deutsche Bank and member of the Executive Committee of “Deutschland – Land der Ideen e. V..
awamo and its approach to improve microfinance
In wide areas of Africa there are only limited bank branches. Farmers and small businesses can get credit only from microfinance institutions (MFIs). Most MFIs work paper based and are not able to identify their customers reliably. This situation results in interest rates as high as 60% per annum and above. awamo’s solution is a complete microcredit management system for microfinance institutions in emerging markets. It is user friendly, affordable and tailor made to the specific needs of MFIs. The solution is designed for mobile use, features reliable biometric identification/authentication and completely digitizes credit management, risk management and portfolio management of MFIs. The result is better access to credit for borrowers, more affordable interest rates, lower risk and more transparency.
“We are very happy and proud to be a landmark in the land of ideas” says Benedikt Kramer, CEO and Co-Founder of awamo. “Besides our progress during the last months this is a great motivation for our growing team to sustain our pace in improving microcredit management and thus its availability.” Philipp Neub, COO and Co-Founder of awamo complements: “Making our solution fit the specific requirements of MFIs and environmental conditions in emerging markets like Uganda is an extremely challenging task for everyone at awamo, especially if you consider our team being dislocated between Kampala in Uganda and Frankfurt/Main in Germany. It will be very helpful for us to have an exchange about these challenges with other projects from Land of Ideas“.
An exciting year lies ahead
On May 19, a network meeting is hosted in Berlin where all of the 100 award winners will meet. Between June and December, all award winners celebrate their nomination at a given day. During autumn the public will be able to elect a publicity price winner in an online voting – this winner will be additionally awarded together with another six determined projects at a ceremony in November. Each of these events will enable the award winners to grow their network amongst the land of idas.
About Land of Ideas
At www.ausgezeichnete-orte.de you can find more information on all awarded projects. More information on digitization in general is available at www.deutschland-vernetzt.de.
With this award initiative “Deutschland – Land der Ideen” and Deutsche Bank want to increase the visibility of entrepreneurial creativity in Germany. Deutsche Bank has been partner of “Deutschland – Land der Ideen” from 2006.
