More from: Klere Ayiti

Soge-EASY! Launch of Branchless Banking Product from Arc Partner Sogebank Can Help Bank Solar Energy Agents

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For thirty years, the Sogebank Group, the parent company of Arc partner Sogexpress the leading money transfer and payment services company in Haiti, has been innovating in the banking market. From being an early mover with ATMs in the 1980s, to mobile banking this decade, the company has led the Haitian banking sector in improving the customer experience.

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Yet, Haiti remains one of the most financially excluded markets in the hemisphere, with only 20 percent of Haitians having a bank account. To help address this, Sogebank has developed a new product called SogeIzi (pronounced Soge-EASY). SogeIzi is a savings model targeted at poor and rural Haitians. The target market includes street agents that sell solar lighting products on consignment with support made possible by technical assistance funded by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the IDB Group, and USAID, and provided by Arc Finance.

Recognizing that like many other Haitians, many of these agents are financially excluded, Sogebank is offering them the possibility to save their income as well as make payments using a debit card (Izicash card). They will be able to use a range of locations within the broad Sogebank Group network (not just the brick-and-mortar Sogebank branches), including Sogexpress stores and ATMs. The clients benefitting from this program, including potentially many of Sogexpress’ solar agents, will be able to access a basic bank account, enabling them to save, earn interest and conduct transactions all over the country, in rural or urban areas, irrespective of whether there is a Sogebank branch nearby.

Simplicity is a hallmark of the program. Sogexpress believes it is important to make it as easy as possible for financially excluded customers to make financial transactions while keeping operating costs low. Accounts can be opened in 10 minutes, using a single identification document and a low initial deposit (HTG 300, or US$5). Customers are provided with a starter kit of an Izicash debit card, explanatory documentation, a PIN, transaction registration, and free enrolment in the Sogemobile (mobile bank account access) and other Sogebanking programs.

SogeIzi is particularly valuable for the agents selling solar lighting products under the program Arc has implemented with Sogexpress. The initiative helps to bring them into the formal financial sector with the associated advantages. It works in tandem with the consignment finance model, which provides solar products on credit to the agent. The extended opening hours of Sogexpress stores (including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays) compared to Sogebank branches is designed to accommodate the needs of clients such as agent entrepreneurs, as is the 24/7 access to their account and execution of transactions through ATMs, Sogebanking and Sogemobile.

As Dominique Policard, Executive Commercial Director at Sogexpress, describes it, this new product is timely, “enabling Sogexpress to take another step in supporting the network of sales agents to increase their livelihoods through financial access and by facilitating savings”. Policard says that the Sogebank Group wants to bring the financially excluded in Haiti into the financial sector, ensuring that even the very poor have access to basic and affordable financial services. This effort is particularly significant in Haiti, which is the poorest country in the hemisphere, with very low levels of financial access and literacy.

The agent consignment model launched by Sogexpress with the support of USAID, MIF/IDB and Arc Finance will benefit over 1,000 agents by the end of 2016. Hopefully many of these people will be able to benefit from the financial access and flexibility of this innovative new program. SogeIzi will be an important way to bring these entrepreneurs into the formal financial sector; enabling them to save, pay and transfer money safely, quickly and affordably as they build their businesses and bring quality clean energy to their customers.

Sogexpress’ Dominique Policard Appears on TV in the U.S. to Promote the Klere Ayiti Solar Remittance Program

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Dominique Policard, Executive Commercial Director at Arc’s partner Societe Generale Haitienne de Transferts S.A (or ‘Sogexpress’), appeared Tuesday April 14th in a Miami television interview. The program, Teleskopi, was hosted by Gepsie Metellus, and was broadcast on Island TV, a channel targeted at the Haitian diaspora community in the U.S. Dominique talked about the Klere Ayiti initiative (Haitian Creole for “Light up Haiti”) which is an online platform that allows diaspora members to remit solar products back to families in Haiti, using the existing remittance network and architecture of Sogexpress in Haiti, and the Quick PaySM payment service of Western Union.

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Dominique demonstrated four solar products on the remittance platform ranging in price from $55 to $180, described the options, price configurations and benefits of each, and explained the payment process. She described how a customer in the diaspora can place an order on www.klereayiti.com and then pay for the product at any participating Western Union using Quick PaySM services.

The focus of the interview was on the extensive benefits to customers in terms of education, health, security and livelihoods that have been tested and demonstrated over the course of Arc’s engagement with Sogexpress. The Klere Ayiti platform enables the Haitian diaspora to use remittances to finance renewable energy products for families and friends in Haiti, where a large majority of the population does not have access to electricity.

The platform features a dedicated website that allows diaspora-based customers to pre-order the solar light kit of their choice at www.klereayiti.com. They select the product and then use their order number to complete payment at participating Western Union Agent locations via the Western Union® Quick PaySM platform (present in over 174 countries around the world). Orders are fulfilled by Sogexpress in 3 to 5 working days.

All the products for sale have the capacity to recharge mobile phones, a highly desirable feature in Haiti, and were carefully selected by the Sogexpress team with the help of Arc Finance. All products come with a warranty by local distributors in Haiti.

The Klere Ayiti platform was launched in late July 2015 in Port-au-Prince and Miami. It was the culmination of many months of preparation and hard work by the Sogexpress and Western Union teams, and was made possible with support from the USAID-funded Renewable Energy Microfinance and Microenterprise Program (REMMP) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Here at Arc, we’re delighted to see this program reaching the Haitian community in the U.S., and look forward to working with all the partners to increase clean lighting access in Haiti.