NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- New York City's Office of Financial Empowerment is a proud partner with the NYC[x] Moonshot: Financial inclusion Challenge. The contest was a thoughtful response to the challenges of unbanked and underbanked New Yorkers.
It was a call to demonstrate the role technology can play in serving public good and highly encouraged ideas from stakeholders from all backgrounds and experiences to thoughtfully engage in the systemic inequality facing over a million households in NYC. Contestants were encouraged to share their creative ideas that would help families come up with real financial solutions to economic issues.
In a press release from the mayor's office, it is noted that a staggering 49% of households in the Bronx alone either have no bank account (unbanked) or have a bank account but use some alternative form of financial products (underbanked). Compare that to 33% across the entire city or 26% across the nation.
"Nobody should be trapped in poverty because they are unbanked or underbanked, or left paying high fees and fines for financial services essential to daily life," said New York City Chief Technology Officer John Paul Farmer. "The NYC[x] Moonshot: Financial Inclusion Challenge winners and honorees represent an extraordinary range of innovative, tech-enabled, culturally-relevant, and much-needed solutions from diverse teams and partnerships. We look forward to helping advance these solutions with the aim of improving the lives of everyday New Yorkers."
The pandemic only exacerbated the existing issues.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for solutions that support the financial security and empowerment of New Yorkers from lower-income communities of color," said Deputy Mayor for Administration and Chief of Staff Emma Wolfe
Winners were announced in December after a six-month-long submission process, starting in June. The contest offered up to $20k in prizes, exposure, and networking opportunities for possible expansion and growth interactions.
There were 70 applicants altogether, Namma being named as a finalist in the credit category.
Namma is a financial technology platform that eases the discomfort of asking your network for a loan. It makes the process seamless and formal by giving the borrower and the lender the tools to set up a precise arrangement.
Users can create new agreements where terms can be set like amount, duration, or interest as a borrower or lender, access and download agreements at any time, receive monthly reminders on due dates for the length of the loan, and even automate payments directly through the app.
"Namma's vision is to make digital contracts the way to track transactions between known networks globally," said Sonal Bagga, Founder, Namma. "Our mission is to provide services to make contracting easy & less taboo – thereby allowing family and friends to invest into their network with peace of mind."
About Namma
Blazing trails, Namma is the first product of its kind that lends a hand in lending between family and friends. The product provides an easy-to-use platform that allows users to formalize loan arrangements between peers in your known network. Users can access simple features like personalized contracts, custom terms and timelines, loan progress tracking, and initiating electronic bank transfers. Namma's vision aims "to make borrowing from your network easy and a viable option by formalizing the process and providing benefits such as credit ratings, global transactions, and money transfers." For more information, visit namma.co or follow Namma on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Media Contact
Sonal Bagga, Namma, 1 601-533-8259, [email protected]
SOURCE Namma
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