MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

Mo-Access Finance

One-line solution summary.

Mo-Access Finance (MoA), which is pronounced to mean "MORE" - aims to bring financial services closer to mothers through Mother's Savings & affordable Mother's Health Loans and Maternal Health Products.

What is your solution?

As Mo-Access Finance (MoA), our first and immediate focus is on securing the mothers and the new born. Medline Plus has a listed a number of items needed by mothers during labor and delivery. It is heart breaking that a quick survey revealed that majority of these items are not affordable for most mothers in Uganda.

As a result, they experience poor hygiene before, during, and after child birth. This puts both the life of the mother and the new born at risk. In this link that provides the basic requirements during and after child birth (https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000543.htm), you can quickly view that there is a huge challenge, especially in Rural Areas and mothers who live in Slums.

To address this our dream is to launch Mo-Access Finance (MoA). An entity that will open up access to variety of maternal health products to mothers. We will operate through two main models: 1. Mother's Savings & Mother's Health Loans. 2. Affordable Maternal health products.

So, in addition to making cash accessible to mothers and promoting financial inclusion, we will also be able to offer mothers the opportunity to afford majority of their maternal health needs through subsidized prices.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

There is a challenge of poor access and utilization of maternal health care products. Although northern and western regions have seen a decrease in the share of population in poverty since the 1990s, the eastern region has recorded an increase in poverty (from 24.3% in 1999/2000 to 35.7% in 2016/17), overtaking the northern region as the poorest.

Therefore, Eastern region is now the poorest region in Uganda (UNBS, 2017) and this has not changed. Whereas there is a lot of information on maternal health in many Ugandan hospitals and health centres - even in Eastern Uganda, many maternal health products remain expensive for majority of mothers given their poor backgrounds.

In Eastern Uganda, Mothers struggle to meet their needs during child birth. Having a background of finance, I understand that financial solutions can bring lasting changes, especially in an economy where total financial inclusion still remains a challenge.

The products are already there. Yes, we could innovate a new maternal product as a team, but as of now, even the already available products are a challenge. Expanding access to personal maternal health supplies is an urgent and uphill task that should not be left to the government alone.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Mo-Access Finance (MoA), which is pronounced to mean "MORE" - aims to bring financial services closer to mothers through Mother's Savings & Mother's Health Loans that are very affordable and also provision of Affordable Maternal Health Products. The health products can be accessed to through cash, on credit, or transfer system. The transfer system involves transfer of savings to acquire desired health products.

Apart from this, we will also offer free financial counseling and investment advice to mothers to ensure sustainability and wider impact.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

The targeted beneficiaries of Mo-Access Finance are the mothers and the new born. However, the project has the potential to benefit the wider family structure and households.

Given that the "Poverty Maps of Uganda: Technical Report" by UBOS (2019) indicates that at 35.7 percent, the overall poverty rate in the eastern region is significantly higher than the national rate (21.4 percent) and also now the highest in the country, and the fact that the results further reveal that 38.2 percent of children in the eastern region live below the national poverty line, our central focus will be in Eastern Uganda.

Butaleja district is reported to have the has the highest poverty rates both for children (51 percent) and the population as a whole (48 percent). Generally, Bukedi sub-region makes up the poorest in Eastern Uganda (includes districts of Tororo, Busia, Budaka, Kibuku, Butaleja and Pallisa). The worst hit of these districts are Butaleja, Budaka and Kibuku. This is our starting point. These people need us more.

For the start, our aim is to enroll at least 200 mothers in each sub-county within a 5-year period - starting with the three districts of Butaleja, Budaka, and Kibuku. I have interacted with a good number of mothers in these three districts and they're so welcoming.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

Our solution's stage of development:

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

Yes, there are many women loans and savings programs out there such as Mama's Safe Individual Savings by Finance Trust Bank, WMBL's Mama Bank Access Points (MAPs) in Papua New Guinea - PHB, Mama Money Financial Services, Mama Bidii, and the Usual SACCOS & VSLA's. However, these models mainly focus on Agriculture and other areas of Life. There is need for an intentional model that focuses on the mother and the infant. This project is for the good of mothers and the new born, among the many Maternal health global interventions.

The Uniqueness about this product is that it targets mothers and especially, meeting maternal health requirements for the disadvantaged in society. The most important part is in the model's ability to shift thinking among mothers and eventually influence the greater part of society.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Mbale, Uganda

Team Lead:

Justine Malinga