Kuda Technologies, a UK-headquartered financial services company focused on emerging markets, has partnered with Fatima Group and The City School Group to apply for a digital banking licence in Pakistan with the goal of driving financial inclusion in the country. The consortium members recently signed an agreement in the presence of Ryan Laubscher, Group Chief Expansion Officer, Kuda Technologies, Ali Mukhtar, Director, Fatima Group, Aurangzeb Firoz, Director, The City School Group, and Tooran Asif, Chief Executive Officer (Subject to Regulatory Approval). Founded in 2019 with over $90 million of funding from renowned institutional investors, including Valar Ventures and Target Global, Kuda Technologies has acquired more than 3 million customers in Nigeria alone on the strength of its proprietary core banking platform, a data-driven approach to the provision of instant credit, seamless, touch-free customer on boarding, and an overriding mission to provide affordable and inclusive financial services. Having processed transactions worth $10 billion over the past 6 months in its retail customer segment in Africa, Kuda Technologies is now aiming to provide the same access of affordable and user-friendly financial services to micro, small and medium sized businesses in the seven new markets by the end of 2022. According to Laubscher, Kuda’s Group Chief Expansion Officer, “The company’s partnership with Fatima Group and The City School Group leverages each partner’s unique reach and capabilities to create a powerful proposition with enormous potential to increase financial access and affordability in Pakistan, and most notably, with a focus on the agriculture and education sectors.” Fatima Group is Pakistan’s leading agribusiness group with a captive 2.5 million customers, and its agriculture financing pilots have recorded success in helping farmers increase crop yield. The group has also invested in Fatima Gobi Ventures which is in turn an active investor in technology start-ups, having funded Airlift, Tajir and Safepay in Pakistan. Mukhtar, DirectorFatima Group, stated, “Digitising agriculture is the key agenda of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Fatima Group, with its deep agribusiness roots, and Kuda’s technological solution will bring in a revolution for the country by providing ease of agri-banking solutions.” Meanwhile, with a legacy of more than 44 years, The City School Group has positioned itself as a leader in the education sector catering to more than 200,000 students across 700 campuses.Firoz, Director at The City School Group stated, “Achieving inclusive and quality education is imperative to Pakistan’s development. Through partnership with Kuda Technologies, we aim to provide easy solutions for education financing to parents, teachers and students by offering them an integrated banking experience.”