LABUAN: NEUROGINE Group of Companies, a financial technology (fintech) developer of mobile platforms for banking, payment, money broking, merchant and more, has inked a collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to explore issues of financial inclusion, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and credit access.
Neurogine Group chief executive officer Owen Chen Chee Onn said the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between UMS and Neurogine Group is to seek fresh ideas and answers, leveraging Neurogine Group’s technological capabilities and experience to help targeted business segments, especially SMEs, recover.
“We are pursuing this direction as SMEs are key drivers of economic growth and job creation, especially in developing economies like Malaysia.
“From our viewpoint we see a noticeable gap of capital and credit access, characterised by market failures and imperfections, like information asymmetries, inadequacy of acceptable collaterals, high transaction costs, and perceptions of higher risks.
“It is worthwhile to explore new ways of providing capital and credit access to SMEs using our technologies,” he said after the recent MoU signing, according to Bernama.
The MoU was signed at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus or UMSKAL by UMS vice-chancellor Prof. Datuk Taufiq Yap Yun Hin and Owen Chen, and witnessed by UMS registrar Luqman Ridha Anwar and Neurogine Group chairman Chen Chee Peng.
Chen said the MoU represents an escalation of collaboration between both organisations from a letter of intent previously signed on Feb 27, 2020.
As a result of the MoU, three immediate initiatives are in the works, with the first initiative to explore the potential and readiness of local SMEs adapting new financial technology.
“We see advantages in hybridising our fintech for SMEs, providing new access to global funding to increase food production, ensure sustainable sea harvests and more.
“Given the current crisis, we think this is timely that UMS and Neurogine will do research on this area and to fund this initiative, we are announcing today the availability of research grants – we have started to evaluate suitable applied research proposals with UMS,” he said.
The second initiative is to expand and continue to support the UMS-Neurogine Internship Programme, a three-month programme where Neurogine Group provides tools and a sand-box environment for interns from UMS to gain real-world experience, critical to boost their employability rate after graduation.
While the third is to actively take on an active role to support UMS in the organisation of seminars, conferences and workshops related to finance and technology. Yap said UMS will collaborate with industry players to develop business solutions.
