HiPipo Money

The twenty-first century came with its unique disruptions, with technology taking centre stage. But the COVID-19 pandemic is to date the biggest unexpected occurrence. The effects of this pandemic will last for a very long.

On one hand, COVID-19 negatively affected every aspect of life; deaths in millions, jobs lost in millions, and global stress and anxiety among others.

On the other hand, it ushered in the new normal – scripted around technology; digital payments, e-commerce, e-health, e-education and e-parties among others.

In Africa, visionaries used COVID-19 as a springboard to ideate, develop and roll out both time and lifesaving innovations.

Tanzania-based Quickii Enterprises Group Limited is one of the pacesetters in East Africa, running two financial inclusion solutions, namely; Quickii and QuickiiPay.

“Quickii is an application which deals with delivery services and taxi bookings. Quickii is not just a ride; it is a ride-hailing experience. Whether you are commuting or exploring the city, our super app redefines convenience and reliability,” Alphonce Japhet Malambi, the Founder and CEO of Quickii Enterprises Group Limited said, adding;

“On the other hand, QuickiiPay is the mobile platform that deals with money transfers and currency exchange. QuickiiPay is where financial freedom meets simplicity. As a comprehensive FinTech App, we offer a suite of services including money transfer, currency exchange, invoice payment, a dynamic payment link generator, a robust payment gateway, and an advanced escrow payment system.”

Quickii Enterprises boasts over 2,000 service providers on its platform who serve more than 5,000 unique customers every month.

According to Malambi, the main challenge his company faces is the government’s perception that digital financial services come with so much fraud. This he notes further delays the uptake of their service as it erodes trust among end-users. 

Quickii Enterprises Group Limited features on Day 13 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit. HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.

Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is mainly dominated by Subsistence, Smallholder Farmers and Agro-Small and Medium Enterprises. These collectively contribute greatly to the continent’s Food Basket, enhance Food Security and also employ millions of people.

That said, they face enormous challenges, many of which threaten their long-term survival.  Such challenges include limited resources, unpredictable seasons, poor seeds, expensive fertilizers and unstable markets.

It is these challenges that innovators are working in overdrive to address and make Agriculture more attractive and much more profitable.

Among such innovators is BizyTech Limited; a Tanzanian-based company that has developed a transformative Agri-FinTech solution named KILIMO BaNDO.

KILIMO BaNDO offers a digital solution for savings and payment services in rural areas, enabling farmers to access affordable, quality inputs and financing for their farming activities.

The platform also provides an input loan service for farmers who have joined KILIMO BaNDO to support their farming operations with necessary inputs, agricultural machinery, and soil health analysis.

Farmers who have joined KILIMO BaNDO also receive comprehensive crop, health, life, and equipment insurance to protect them from any disasters or issues that could harm their entire production systems.

“Generally, farmers are not financially included in Tanzania. So, we meet farmers, profile them, put them in a group and give them an e-wallet ID. With this e-wallet ID, they can transact through our platform. They can save little by little so that they can buy inputs for the farming seasons. They do this via USSD codes because most farmers don’t have digital smartphones, so they use feature phones. This service enables them to order for inputs and have them delivered to their homes,” Isabella Fernandez, the VP of Business Administration at BizyTech Limited said.

She added: “We enable farmers to access loans, get insurance and also link their products to be able to have maximum yields. We are the infrastructure that links all the services in the agriculture value chain to a smallholder farmer. We work with different financial institutions that give out loans and insurance services. We offer the platform that enables all this.” 

Since its launch in 2015, KILIMO BaNDO has continued to contribute to Agriculture transformation in Tanzania. It has handled Agriculture volumes worth over USD 500 million, works with more than 5,000 Agrimerchants and has registered more than 3.6 million farmers including 1.2m that are active every month.

Minus KILIMO BaNDO, BizyTech also has other solutions including the recently launched Kilimo Bima platform; an Innovative Insurance Solution that aims to increase Insurance Adoption among Smallholder Farmers from the current 0.2 per cent to 25 per cent by the end of 2025/2026 cropping season.

Fernandez noted that the main challenges they face include high fertilizer costs, low acceptance of technology among farmers and limited attraction of proper talent to further improve their work.

To this, Fernandez noted: “Being a start-up is not easy and comes with its challenges. The journey has not been easy but we continue to innovate and also bring in consultants to patch up the expertise that we may lack internally.”

We interacted with BizyTech on Day 12 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

“40 Days 40 FinTechs is a great initiative. It enables us to tell our story through other people. At least we now know that someone out there will listen to our story outside the zones we have been in already,” Fernandez said.

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.

Health is the biggest wealth that any human being can have in their entire life. But access to quality health services is a huge challenge globally with most people in Africa and Asia unable to get dignified healthcare.

But, some steps are being taken to address these glaring health services disparities. While governments, the private sector and development partners are investing massively in health infrastructure, innovators are also playing their part; ideating, developing and rolling out solutions to democratize healthcare. Among such companies is Afya Lead.

Founded at the end of 2020, Afya Lead uses FinTech to provide affordable technologies and medical devices to improve the quality of healthcare in Africa.

 “Currently, we are ensuring the accessibility, availability and affordability of Healthcare through innovative solutions that bring seamlessness and convenience to Healthcare in Africa. We are working on two products. One is Mkanda Salama; which is a Swahili name for Safe Belt. It is a locally made tool designed to stop bleeding among mothers with excessive bleeding immediately after delivery,” Franc Mussa, the Chief Strategy Officer at Afya Lead noted.

He added: “The second product is Pamoja Bima; a mobile Micro health insurance that aims at increasing access to health insurance among people from the informal sector in rural Tanzania. This we implement with health insurance schemes across Tanzania. Pamoja Bima is available on both IOS and Google Play store. After downloading the APP, you register and then see the available insurance schemes from which you select the premium you need and pay.”  

According to Mussa, Afya Lead is contributing immensely to ensuring that every person has access to quality health services. But not without challenges.

“This is a new technology we have introduced. The main challenge is transforming the mindset of our end-users to accept technology. We are investing a lot in transforming the mindset of our African audience. The other challenge is regulations. While we are using Technology to solve a Healthcare problem, we are restricted by harsh regulations.”

Afya Lead interacted with the HiPipo Team on Day 11 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

“Initiatives like 40 Days 40 FinTechs are very important on the African continent. Through this initiative, we air our views and suggest ways of improvement. These views are then forwarded to the regulators and policymakers for consideration. I think that 40 Days 40 FinTechs should not be happening once a year. It should be done regularly to ensure that policymakers are continuously reminded about the challenges that start-ups and local innovators are facing,” Mussa explained. 

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.

Globally, access to justice is recognized as both a basic human right and a means to protect other universally recognized human rights. One of the major obstacles to accessing justice is the cost of legal advice and representation. The other is ignorance about the law.

These challenges continue to stop millions across Africa from seeking for Justice and later getting it. Nonetheless, several individuals and organizations are coming out to tackle these issues so that more people can have access to legal services which is key for all those seeking justice.

Among such organizations is Sheria Kiganjani; a Tanzania-founded digital platform that enables people to access various legal services remotely by using their mobile phones and computers.

Sheria Kiganjani is a Swahili set of words which when translated to English means ‘Law on your Palm’. True to its name, this organization enables individuals and organizations to have access to Legal services through Calls, USSD, Web and the APP.

Neema Magimba, the Co-Founder and Head of Legal at Sheria Kiganjani notes that the company is providing easily accessible and affordable legal services to low- and middle-income earners in Tanzania through their mobile phones.

“Through our platform, users can talk to lawyers 24/7, get connected to lawyers closest to where they are, able to download draft templates of legal documents like contracts or MOUs, able to formalize or register their businesses directly through our Application,” Magimba said.

She added: “Most of the laws in Tanzania are in English yet the majority of the Tanzanians speak Swahili. We have allowed our users to have access to over 8000 questions and answers which simplifies the complex legal provisions in Swahili language.”

Those interested in using Sheria Kiganjani services pay a subscription fee – daily, weekly or monthly, after which they are connected to a lawyer remotely or physically depending on each user’s needs.

“The payments are done digitally through the APP automatically. Feature phone users get dedicated services through our helpline. We also share an informative SMS with all our users every week. We are also developing a full-fledged USSD platform which will enable all feature phone users to access all our services without calling us first,” Magimba said.

She notes that the main challenge facing the FinTech ecosystem in Tanzania is the high costs required to acquire licenses to operate.

To this, Magimba explained; “For purely FinTech platforms, one of the huge challenges we have seen is the costs of getting the relevant licenses and certifications needed from Bank of Tanzania to be able to handle payments within their platforms. The regulations are very clear but that amount of money within the regulations does not really consider a start-up especially one that is working with seed funding.”

We interacted with Sheria Kiganjani on Day 10 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

“Initiatives like 40 Days 40 FinTechs bring all stakeholders together in one room to discuss issues that affect the ecosystem and brainstorm means on how to improve the working environment so that we can flourish in Tanzania. 40 Days 40 FinTechs also helps to spread the word and enable people to know more about FinTech ecosystem players and the solutions they provide,” Magimba noted.

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.

Tourism is one of the biggest revenue earners for the East African region. According to data from the East African Community (EAC) secretariat, the sector contributes an average of about 17 per cent to export earnings and its contribution to GDP is quite substantial averaging at around 10 per cent. It generates up to 10 per cent of employment in the region. But the majority of these Tourists are international, with few locals contributing to these figures.

Nonetheless, governments and private companies are deliberately encouraging more locals across East Africa to tour and experience their region.

Among private sector players that are contributing to East Africa’s local Tourism is Safari Wallet; a Dar es Salaam based company that is using FinTech to enable potential travellers to save funds, identify, book and go on their preferred trips. 

Safari Wallet is a Travel FinTech marketplace that offers freedom of travel to Africans by connecting intending travellers to tour operators across the continent. The platform gives interested travellers a chance to book a tourism experience of their choice, agree on a payment plan and pay digitally.

“We work closely with small and medium tour operators who are operating with the Africa destinations. These operators host a multiple number of tourism experiences on our platform and give an opportunity to the locals who want to travel to plan their trip before they travel and pay flexibly,” Eid (Iddy) John, the Co-Founder and CEO of Safari Wallet said.

He added: “One can book or design any trip and then pay slowly, manageably using an instalment model which can be a weekly or monthly plan or choose a single one-off payment. The goal is to make it easy for anyone to afford to travel. Rather than paying everything at once, you can just take your time, save now and travel later.”

Once a trip is booked using Safari Wallet, there are no price fluctuations making the experience predictable and enjoyable for the tourists.

“By the time you lock up your trip, you have locked up every single detail of that deal including travel, accommodation, food and everything included in that trip. When you complete your payment, you just pack your bags and travel without any additional charges,” Iddy John said.  

Safari Wallet has embedded digital payments that enable its over 100,000 customers to pay using either mobile money or bank cards.

“If you subscribe to an experience, you can choose between paying with mobile money or a bank card. If your payment plan is weekly, then every week a pop-up will appear on your phone informing you about your payment and pending deduction off your wallet. When you accept, then the payment is completed. Going forward, we are working on a system that enables our customers to deposit money directly onto their Safari Wallet in advance and we seamlessly collect it as per each customer’s trip payment schedule. Whether you are using bank or mobile money, we don’t complete any payment without notifying you,” Iddy John explained.

We interacted with Safari Wallet on Day 9 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

According to Iddy John; “40 Days 40 FinTechs is giving us a chance to share our innovative solutions but also putting this information out for the government and other stakeholders to know how these industries are operating; the existing opportunities and challenges we face. It is a great initiative.”

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.

Searching and finding a house to rent as a home or a business is a huge hustle involving several brokers and agents. But when you are fortunate to find your preferred house, another issue comes in.

The majority of the property owners and managers have rent agreements that guarantee them bulk payments that are yearly, half year or if you are very lucky quarterly. This requires huge amounts of cash that many people struggle to have at once.

It is such ills that Pango Africa came to cure. Pango is a home financing digital platform for Africans that helps aspiring homeowners or renters pay for their homes in convenient and flexible ways.

James Albany, the company founder notes that Pango is a FinTech that is implementing the program of Rent Now and Pay Later for salaried employees in Tanzania.

“Most of the landlords in Tanzania prefer three months, six months or one-year rent advances. This makes it hard for people to get affordable houses. What Pango does is pay for you for a full year, then make monthly deductions off your salary. We don’t send you the money, we send it to the landlords directly because we have realized that when people get money directly, they sometimes use it for reasons other than those they mentioned when accessing the credit,” Albany said.

He added that due to public demand, they have added a school fees payment element that is very beneficial to parents, pupils and the schools.

 “We are also implementing a similar model for schools where we pay school fees directly to the schools for parents that are not able to pay the school fees on time. After making the payment to the school, we let the parents pay monthly instalments to us without worrying about their kids missing school. This we call Study Now and Pay Later.”

According to Albany, some of the main challenges they are facing while implementing this business model are growing numbers of defaulters, limited data about creditworthiness, bad employer-employee contracts and trouble signing partnerships with other Financial institutions because of the absence of collateral that Banks need to recapitalize such businesses.

“This is a new business model and thus most people don’t appreciate it. Most of these government institutions and banks don’t want to go down this route because to them it is a very risky loan business, but to us, it is where we shine.”

Pango features on Day 8 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for Tanzania. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.

It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.

“Initiatives like 40 Days 40 FinTechs are very important as they shine a light on founders; what they are doing, their solutions and what they inspire to achieve with their innovations. This helps in market expansion and learning from one another. When you follow an initiative like this one, you will know what other innovators are doing in other parts of Africa and learn from one another. Thanks to such an initiative, investors will put their eyes on this and see what is going on in Tanzania and decide where they can invest,” Albany concluded.

40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include EveryOne Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.

The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.