TraXion To Bring Financial Inclusion to 89 Million Unbanked Filipinos

Wazzup Pilipinas!

TraXion, a fully-featured financial services platform for the unbanked and underbanked, is enabling full financial inclusion for everybody in the Philippines. To create a ready-to-go solution, it blends a very new technology—blockchain—with decades-old technologies like text messages and leverages a broad network of existing brick-and-mortar shops.

Eight out of 10 families in the Philippines are unbanked or underbanked. This means they have never had access to financial services that the middle class takes for granted. Being stuck in a cash-only economy limits people's financial options, putting their financial security at risk, and stifling their economic potential.

TraXion is offering full-featured savings accounts that enable payments, low-cost remittances, peer-to-peer loans, savings accounts, a full range of insurance options, investment consultancy and a philanthropic crowdsourcing platform.

A Pragmatic Approach

To accomplish this feat, TraXion is using existing infrastructure: mobile phones and convenience stores. TraXion has developed a mobile e-wallet that works on even the most affordable feature phone through the proven power of SMS. They're also rolling out e-wallets to the estimated 600,000 merchants operating ubiquitous privately-owned "sari-sari" convenience stores all across the Philippines.

The whole system is powered by blockchain technology and automated by smart contracts. Blockchain tech keeps funds safe and secure, while TraXion's TXN token helps to ensure speedy, low-cost remittances, taking mere seconds for an international money transfer instead of the average processing time of one-to-five business days. A much larger-than-average percentage of the Philippine population works abroad, remitting money back home every month to support their families—who often withdraw this money in one envelope of cash. This represents an extended market base that TraXion is eager to reach.

"After establishing our customer base in the Philippines, we will expand first to Indonesia and other countries where there are a lot of overseas migrant workers to better facilitate their remittances. Our first client contract with a seafarer's cooperative is a move in that direction, onboarding up to 1 million maritime entrepreneurs," said TraXion Founder and CEO Ann Cuisia.

Being on blockchain means TraXion is platform agnostic, allowing it to be easily adapted for different technologies and approaches in different countries. While they are focusing on sari-sari store integration in the Philippines, for example, the higher smartphone penetration in Indonesia will make it easier for TraXion to access the market directly.

Cuisia is also the Founder of GavaGives, the most popular online charity crowdsourcing platform in the Philippines, which will be connected to the overall TraXion platform. The TraXion team is dedicated to combating poverty, having promised to allocate 2% of their tokens as rewards for top philanthropists on GavaGives. The charity platform was a testing ground for TraXion's e-wallet and the underlying blockchain technology. GavaGives uses Hyperledger Fabric to track contributions through the value chain, greatly increasing accountability.

GavaGives has recently partnered with Coins.ph, Southeast Asia's leading e-wallet. The partnership will draw more attention to TraXion's blockchain method of verifying trustworthy NGOs, by bringing up a list of top-performing philanthropy organizations operating on the GavaGives site whenever someone uses Coins.ph to make a donation. This will greatly reduce charity fraud across the region.

There are a number of other companies also currently working on financial inclusion solutions. Among them, She Counts is giving unbanked women in Tanzania and Indonesia access to mobile banking services, Paysafe enables cash payments online in many countries around the world, and IDBox combines a solar-powered Raspberry Pi with a fingerprint scanner to offer power–main free access to financial services in Papua New Guinea. While none of these companies offer the full scale of services that TraXion is ready to launch, Cuisia-Lindayag remains hopeful for their success.

"We aim to work together with other companies that make e-wallets, not compete with them," said Cuisia. "At the end of the day, we're all working together for the common good. We must not lose sight of this."

TraXion's TXN token pre-sale has already begun, and their crowd sale begins on August 1st. More than $4 million has already been raised in their private sale. For more information and to learn more about the KYC process, visit https://www.traxion.tech.

Additional Facts and Figures:

According to the World Bank's most recent Global Findex, 22% of all humans on Earth remain unbanked.

In the Philippines, 89 million people are unbanked or underbanked, and credit card penetration is only 3%.

2.2 million migrant Filipinos work overseas at any time, making the Philippines the third-largest remittance-receiving nation in the world, according to a recent World Bank report.

The Philippines has a very high rate of mobile phone penetration, at 75% according to a 2017 joint report by We Are Social and Hootsuite.

"Sari-sari" convenience stores account for 40-45% of company sales in the country according to a recent estimate by Procter & Gamble Philippines.

DOTr, CAAP to Inaugurate Maasin Airport's New Passenger Terminal

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is set to inaugurate the new Passenger Terminal Building of the Maasin Airport on July 2, 2018.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade will lead the inauguration with DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Capt. Manuel Antonio Tamayo, and CAAP Director General Capt. Jim Sydiongco.

The airport’s new Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) aims to upgrade the airport from a community airport to a standard Principal Class 2 airport, so that it can meet increasing air transport demands. 

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said the Maasin Airport Project is expected to enhance the city’s economic accessibility. 

“Gusto natin inclusive growth, kaya kung mapapansin ninyo, agresibo tayo sa pag-implement ng mga proyekto sa mga probinsya. Gaya nitong bagong terminal ng Maasin airport na siguradong makakatulong sa economic activity ng Leyte,” he said.

Maasin Airport is one of the community airports under the CAAP National Airport System, and is the only airport serving the region of Southern Leyte.

In 2013, Maasin Airport served as a backup entry point for relief goods and medicine deliveries during the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda— proving its capability and potential to serve as an alternate airport to Tacloban City’s Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport.

Local officials of Leyte, led by Governor Leopoldo Dominico L. Petilla and Vice Governor Atty. Carlo Loreto, together with Maasin Mayor National V. Mercado and Vice Mayor Maloney L. Samaco will also be present at the inauguration.

A budding city discovering its potentials, Maasin City’s attractions include the eco-treat of Cagnituan - a huge subterranean cave, cool waterfall, and a refreshing lagoon; an 18th century church which is a pilgrimage site, while its neighboring towns are known for dive sites.

DOE Encourages Young Women to Join the Energy Workforce

Wazzup Pilipinas!

GENDER EQUALITY:160 students from Tanauan City National High School took part in the Department of Energy-Consumer Welfare and Promotion Office's ENEReady campaign. With the theme, “Breaking Gender Stereotypes in the Energy Workforce”, it was held last Thursday (28 June2018) in Batangas. The campaign seeks to encourage the country’s youth, particularly the female students, to take courses in science, technology, 

The Department of Energy (DOE) continues to invite more young women into the field of science, technology and engineering, as part of its strategy for energy security of the country. 

On 28 June 2018, the DOE held its 12th ENEReady event for 160 Grade 10 students in Tanauan City High School, with the theme “Breaking Gender Stereotyping in the Energy Workforce.” Through this program, the DOE is encouraging students to enroll in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Track in Grade 11. The DOE, through its Gender and Development advocacy, is also focusing on women to harness their potential as they constitute half of the Philippine population.

During the event, the students were provided insights on technical career opportunities in the energy industry by linking them with the different bureau functions of the agency. At the same time, they were introduced to the concept of energy resiliency.

The lady speakers from the DOE Renewable Energy Management Bureau and Energy Resource Development Bureau shared their work experiences, as well as the benefits that they derive from their respective vocations in the energy department. They emphasized that among the adaptive capacity indicators of a country is the number of engineering graduates per year, as a percentage of the total population. For the Philippines, this stood at a meager 0.07% in 2016. 

The school’s principal Lilibeth L. Cabrera expressed her appreciation to the DOE for presenting a wide array of technical disciplines in the energy sector, as well as the various opportunities in energy industry. She said that before the ENEReady Program, their career counselling was limited to the more common jobs available in the market, such as nursing, medicine, accounting, and information technology. 

The Batangas event was held in collaboration with the Junior Chamber International’s (formerly the Philippine Jaycees, Inc.) Tanauan Mabini Chapter, through its President, Anna Marie Quarer and Engr. Edison Subala.

DOE-Consumer Welfare and Promotion Office headed by Division Chief Helen B. Arias spearheaded the ENEReady Program. Since its inception in 2016, the program already inspired more than 2,000 students to take up engineering and science courses.

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YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:Helen B. Arias, Head of the Department of Energy Consumer Welfare and Promotion Office, invited high school students to pursue science, engineering and technology courses.  The DOE ENEReady program was held in Tanauan City High School in Batangas last 18 June 2018 (Thursday).