Moove, Suzuki, MUFG Team to Promote Financial Inclusion for Gig Workers

Mobility FinTech Moove has teamed up with Japanese financial services company MUFG and carmaker Suzuki to promote financial inclusion among gig workers in Africa.

With the collaboration, “Moove … aims to advance financial inclusion and job creation as well as upskilling opportunities in the sector,” the company said in a Tuesday (Aug. 30) news release.

According to the release, the partnership was inked at the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, and is among the first to involve an African FinTech company.

“Moove’s alternative credit scoring technology will enable access to vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs, backed by the strength of MUFG’s financial services capabilities and Suzuki’s expertise in supplying durable, high performance and fuel efficient vehicles,” the release said.

Launched in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2020, Moove provides access to vehicle financing and other financial services and has since scaled to seven markets across sub-Saharan Africa and six markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Asia and Europe. Customers have made more than 7 million trips in Moove-financed vehicles.

The companies said their agreement will allow them to collaborate on other mobility-related challenges, including helping more female customers access financing and improving road safety and training support for mobility entrepreneurs.

As PYMNTS noted last month, many of the gig workers in Africa’s emerging markets are underbanked with limited access to savings or credit, which are crucial to helping micro-entrepreneurs go after new opportunities.

See also: Nigeria’s Underbanked Gig Workers Flock to One-Stop-Shop Financial Platforms

Tatenda Furusa, the co-founder of ImaliPay, told PYMNTS he first observed the trouble gig workers face when accessing financial tools when his Uber ran out of gas mid-journey because the driver’s payment had been delayed.

Furusa said the incident sparked a question: “How do we solve the financial problems or challenges that these freelancers face in Africa?”

In that case, it meant launching ImaliPay, a Nigerian FinTech firm that aims to provide a one-stop-shop for the region’s underbanked gig economy workers who need financial services such as savings, credit and insurance.

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