IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/prbchp/978-3-032-23124-6_49.html

Frugal Innovation in African Fintech: The Case of Oye in Enhancing Financial Inclusion for Kenya’s Bodaboda Riders

Author

Listed:
  • Hamid Nach

    (AfreLA, UQAR)

  • Japheth Mursi

    (United States International University, IwazoLab, School of Science and Technology (SST))

Abstract

This paper examines how Oye, a Kenyan fintech startup, applies frugal innovation to enhance financial inclusion for motorcycle taxi (Bodaboda) riders. Drawing on Frugal Innovation Theory, Stakeholder Theory, and Financial Inclusion Framework, we investigate how the company innovatively links fuel purchases to insurance coverage. Despite contributing 3.4% to Kenya’s GDP, Bodaboda riders face significant risks from accidents and lack access to insurance coverage due to the sector’s informal nature. Through an in-depth case study combining interviews with Oye’s CEO and document analysis, we analyzed Oye’s frugal approach combining basic technology (USSD), strategic partnerships (with petrol stations and insurers), and community engagement to deliver affordable insurance. This study advances our understanding of how frugal innovation principles, in resource-constrained environments, can be applied within fintech to address the needs of informal sector workers. Additionally, it demonstrates how fintech companies can leverage existing infrastructure and stakeholder relationships to create accessible financial services in emerging economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamid Nach & Japheth Mursi, 2026. "Frugal Innovation in African Fintech: The Case of Oye in Enhancing Financial Inclusion for Kenya’s Bodaboda Riders," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-23124-6_49
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-23124-6_49
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-23124-6_49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.