Thank you for your custom and support over the years
Improvements to the technical infrastructure and the name transfer meant that we had to go off-line and suspend services at the AccessPointCash website, on behalf of the team our sincere gratitude and appreciation for your patience and understanding during this period; I’m confident that you will like what we’ve done and immediately experience the benefits;
Using the new and improved service couldn’t be easier. To send money, all you need to do is log in at www.fadugu.com with your existing AccessPointCash username and password. Your account details have not been changed and are still secure and valid.  For new users, registering your details with us takes only a few minutes.
As a thank you for your custom and to celebrate the re-launch and name change from AccessPointCash to Fadugu, we are offering all of our UK customers free transfers to Sierra Leone, simply log into your account if you are an existing customer or Register with us if you are a new customer and select either the “Pay Cash in Bank” or “Internet Banking” option to complete your free transfer.
We will keep you informed when we extend this offer to our US customers, please keep visiting our website for further updates 
 If you have any questions, please contact our customer care team who are always happy to help:
Email: support@fadugu.com
Tel: (24 hours a day, seven days a week)
UK:+44-207-078-7315
US+1-240-297-3407
      +1-289-428-1335
We look forward to being your number one choice for sending money back home in the future!
Yours Sincerely
Leah Mansaray
Founder / CEO
leah@fadugu.com /www.fadugu.com

Leah Mansaray, Founder and Director of Fadugu has been invited to participate as a Speaker at the International Policy Conference on “The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Migrants’ Remittances and it’s implications for Development; to be held on the 22nd March 2009 at Geldmuseum (Money Museum) Leidseweg 90, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

1st – 4th December 2008 – “Fadugu Funds” selected to participate at Knowledge Fair, Brussels

The “Fadugu Fund” initiative was selected to be showcased at the “Knowledge Fair”; Over 250 people from around the world gathered in Brussels 1-4 December 2008 for a three-day ‘Knowledge Fair’ to share experiences about how they are making migration work for development. The event was hosted by the European Commission and the United Nations as part of a new initiative to connect Diaspora groups with Non-Governmental Organisations in their country of origin to work together for the development of their countries.
The ‘Migration Celebration Film Festival’ was held each evening to welcome participants to Belgium and celebrate the contribution migrants have made around the world for centuries.  Read More about the event here  

14th July 2008 - IIR Mobile Banking Conference

Working with Mi-Pay, Leah Mansaray Founder and Director of Fadugu participated at the 2008 Mobile Banking Conference in Johannesburg.  Read More
IIR’s Mobile Banking & Financial Services Africa event is designed to highlight the potential business models and revenue opportunities that are available to mobile operators and financial institutions seeking to profit from the use of the mobile device as a channel to support payment, banking and financial services. Through a variety of best practice case studies and first-hand insights, it also outlines the potential risks and pitfalls that banks, operators and payments providers should avoid in both developed and developing African markets.
At the conference the following key topics where addressed:

• Identifying which mobile payment products and services are likely to be most successful given specific market dynamics and requirements
• Developing business models that are profitable and sustainable for banks and operators and also appealing and accessible to consumers
• Designing strategies that will overcome the obstacles to traditional banking and encourage customer adoption; successfully re-educating consumers in order to ‘bank the unbanked’
• Identifying and overcoming the technical, organisational and operational challenges to developing a profitable Mobile Banking and Financial Services (MBFS) portfolio: ensuring you have the necessary technical platforms, expertise and organisational structures in place
• Understanding the importance of developing interoperable rather than proprietary MBFS systems in order to maximise the success and viability of the service offering
• Adding Mobile Banking and Financial Services to your Value Added Services (VAS) portfolio to improve the customer experience and maximise the effectiveness of loyalty and retention initiatives
• Examining current business models and identifying optimum revenue sharing models between all players in the value chain
• Understanding and complying with the regulatory framework for MBFS from both a banking and telecoms perspective
• Identifying the potential fraud, security and revenue leakage risks that could arise when supporting an MBFS portfolio
• Understanding how the right branding can determine the success or failure of an MBFS offering and deciding how far the brand extends through the business model in terms of responsibilities, liabilities and ownership of the customer
• Examining what more advanced markets such as South Africa can learn from European experiences of developing NFC and Contactless-based payments services
• Reviewing the emerging solutions and technologies that can support secure, robust and scalable MBFS portfolios – learn about the latest product offerings at the

Remittances Plus™ - helping senders & receivers make their money create the jobs Africa needs…

4th July 2008 Africa Diaspora Development Day

Leah Mansaray Founder and Director of Fadugu joined other Panelists at the Africa Diaspora Development Day event at University of East London to discuss the use of money sent home for job creation. Read More

At a meeting “to discuss the UK priorities for Africa leading to the Gleneagles Summit”, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown assured the Chair of the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) Gibril Faal that remittances are on his agenda, as he prepares for the G8 Summit. He also invited Mr Faal to present to him a paper on remittances for further consideration, which AFFORD will generate as part of its annual
African Diaspora & Development Day (ad3).

This year, ad3 took place on 2 July, focusing on mobilising diaspora resources to create and sustain enterprises and jobs in Africa. The keynote speaker is the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai, who would be drawing up on her experience of working with grassroots women to plant millions of trees in a bid to save the environment, and provide a dignified means of income for the women.
The issue of remittances has steadily been moving up the political agenda. According to a recent World Bank study: "Informal transfers and formal but unrecorded transfers add another order of magnitude to remittance flows, bringing the estimated total to as much as $200 billion - more than foreign direct investment."

The meeting to discuss the UK priorities for Africa held for NGOs, diaspora and faith groups was hosted by Gordon Brown and South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on 11 June, shortly after Mr Brown announced the agreement by G7 Ministers to cancel £30 billion of the debt owed by qualifying developing countries to multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and African Development Bank. Of the initial 18 countries qualifying for 100% debt relief, 14 are African. Although attention often focuses on aid, Faal
made the point that apart from trade income, aid, foreign direct investment (FDI) and diaspora remittances are the three main forms of financial inflow to Africa.
“Only remittances reflect self-help by Africans and the inflows are not countered by future outflows from the continent,” Faal noted. “Remittances are also direct investments through ordinary citizens, without the need of mediation by government or corporate bodies,” he concluded.
Given that the meeting was about discussing UK priorities for Africa, at the G8 Summit, Faal suggested that remittances should be put on the agenda. AFFORD is greatly encouraged by the fact that the Chancellor
confirmed that remittances are indeed on his agenda and invited Faal to present to him a paper on the points raised at the meeting for further consideration.
AFFORD gave evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee enquiry in 2004 in which ways of reducing the transaction costs of remittances were discussed. AFFORD hopes that the G8 will examine other innovative ways of extending the effectiveness of remittances, beyond just the issue of transaction costs. After the ad3 event, Gibril Faal and AFFORD will publish proposals on how financial instruments used to encourage social enterprise and economic regeneration in the UK can be applied to the issue of ‘remittances
for international development’.

Fadugu Founder & CEO Leah Mansaray was invited to participate at INAFI International annual Global Conference on Microfinance, Remittances and Development to share their commitment and experiences on remittances and microfinance as a tool for poverty alleviation, in Africa and worldwide.

His Excellency Yayi Boni President of the Republic of Benin, kindly accepted his Government to host this event, under the Ministry of Microfinance, Small and Medium Enterprises, Women and Youth Employment. The theme of the Conference was : Alternative Financial Institutions as a Platform for Harnessing Remittances, Diaspora Philanthropy and Investment for Sustainable Development.

Among other core objectives, INAFI through its programmes and activities is promoting sustainable development by trying to ensure complementary cooperation and services between microfinance institutions and migrants associations through remittances. The objective is to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for sustainable development. Indeed, the migration phenomenon and its emerging potentials for development has motivated INAFI to pursue a program linking alternative financing to remittances, Diaspora philanthropy and development. INAFI has already organized two global conferences on the role of microfinance in migration, remittances and development: in 2005 in Zacatecas, Mexico; and in 2006 in Tagaytay City, Philippines. Therefore, the principal objectives of the Benin Conference will be: to bring together migration and development stakeholders as well as microfinance practitioners and policy makers such as Government representatives to share experiences and best practices, gather commitments and responses from governments, multilateral development agencies and the private sector; enhance global policy, action plan and finally, identify and develop appropriate microfinance products for migrants families and their immediate communities.

In response to the call for Diaspora Engagement by the Executive Secretariat of the International Network for Microfinance Institution at the 2007 Global Forum Fadugu is launching the Fadugu Fund, our Remittance Matching Program with the sole aim of linking remittances sent with microfinance institutions to create jobs.

Launching on the 1st of January 2008, for every transaction completed through our website we will donate a dollar to the Fadugu Fund – The fund will be accumulated in a high interest deposit account. At the end of the 12 months we will lobby private organisations, development and government institutions to match the funds contributed by Fadugu on behalf of its migrant remittance customers.

On maturity the fund will be used as start-up grants to fund small and medium enterprises in the recipient country, as the old adage goes “charity begins at home” we are launching the program in Sierra Leone but hope to extend to other countries as we expand our operations into different regions.

We have partnered with Afford-UK to provide the business support through its Remittance Plus Program. In Sierra Leone Afford will be responsible for identifying and screening potential businesses in preparation for grant application and grooming them through the grant program. The businesses we fund with start-up grants will be monitored through a 3 year graduation program.

All business will go through a pre-funding business training course, then signed-on as customers of a microfinance Institution, at the end of the 3 year program all clients should have graduated on to become commercial bank account holders.

Whilst the funds mature, customers will have the option of directly funding small businesses that we will profile on our website.

Research conducted by AfricaRecruit suggests that substantial amounts of money Africans in the UK remit home is for business purposes. Amounts vary in the range from an average of $50-$300 a month. Anecdotal evidence gleaned through regular interaction with such investors points to considerable dissatisfaction with the performance of these investments. A common scenario is that diaspora investors are supporting relatives & friends to establish ventures at home. However, these budding entrepreneurs often lack the full range of skills & support necessary to succeed in their venture. Common mistakes include failure to plan the business & failure to take into account all the necessary costs associated with the business resulting in cashflow crises & under-investment over time.

Remittances Plus™ provides business advice & support to the remittances recipient while involving the investor. AFFORD’s existing & growing network of business development/support centres & partners will form the basis of provision of such support linking the UK & different African countries.

In addition to being directed towards known recipients by the remitter, Remittances Plus™ also enables a remitter/investor to invest their money in a small business venture identified by AFFORD’s or partners’ operations on the ground in target countries.

By sending money home to Sierra Leone through Fadugu, an innovative online money transfer operator serving a worldwide community of remitters to Sierra Leone (with more countries coming on-stream in 2008), & opting for Remittances Plus™ business support for the recipient, senders win on two fronts. First, because this is money for investment in an enterprise that will support the country’s recovering economy, Fadugu shall offer a free money transfer service. Second, the sender gains reassurance that the recipient shall have access to high-quality, affordable business support to ensure that the money goes into a venture that is well-thought-through & planned & thus more likely to succeed.

Furthermore, by working with a network of financial service providers on the ground in recipient countries, AFFORD & Fadugu shall ensure that remittances recipients have every opportunity to bank their money & have access to a full range of other important financial services.

In the first instance, AFFORD, Fadugu, and Ghana-based microfinance institution, SINAPI ABA TRUST intend to offer Remittances Plus™ services of investment targeted at a recipient known by the remitter & investment targeted at an entrepreneur identified by SINAPI ABA TRUST.