HiPipo Money

In a landmark decision, Equity Group has received shareholder approval to establish a Representative Office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), marking a significant step in its strategic expansion beyond Africa.

Subject to regulatory approvals from the Central Bank of Kenya and UAE authorities, this move is poised to unlock a wealth of business, trade, and investment opportunities, connecting East and Central Africa with the UAE, Middle East, India, Central Asia, and South Asia.

For the thousands of Equity Bank Uganda customers living and working in the UAE, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, this development promises a transformative leap in accessing tailored financial services they’ve long awaited.

The approval, ratified during Equity Group’s 21^st Annual General Meeting held on 25^th June 2025, reflects a vision to bridge continents, with the Dubai office set to serve as a vital link for diaspora customers interested in one on one customer service, trade facilitation, diaspora banking, and capital raising, amongst others.

This milestone also builds on Equity Bank Uganda’s proactive efforts to engage its diaspora, a journey that began gaining traction in recent years through past initiatives where Equity Bank Uganda’s service and management teams visited Dubai and Saudi Arabia, offering specialized financial and banking services to address their unique needs—ranging from remittances to investment opportunities, efforts that resonated deeply with the diaspora community.

For many Ugandans in the Gulf, the lack of direct banking support has been a persistent challenge. Working as professionals, or entrepreneurs and laborers in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, they’ve relied on informal remittance channels or distant banking relationships, often facing delays or high costs.

The new UAE Representative Office, expected to be operational in early 2026, will change this narrative. It will provide on-site support for letters of credit and supply-chain finance, reducing settlement delays, while enhancing remittance and mobile-money services for the millions of East Africans in the region. This aligns with Equity’s promise to become Africa’s “one-stop financial services platform,” as articulated by Dr. James Mwangi, Group Managing Director.

The move also opens doors for Gulf investors to tap into East Africa’s burgeoning markets, particularly in agribusiness, infrastructure, and energy—sectors where Ugandan expatriates often seek to invest.

COMESA Business Council (CBC) is committed to continue working with HiPipo on the actualization of the Include EveryOne Program across the twenty-one COMESA member states.

This was confirmed by Teddy Soobramanien, the Chief Executive Officer of COMESA Business Council (CBC) while giving an update on the Include EveryOne Program implementation in the COMESA region, who noted that the program’s initial phase covering Zambia and Malawi continues to have tremendous impact on informal cross border traders, women and youth entrepreneurs plus FinTech stakeholders in general.

“We have initially covered two countries; Zambia and Malawi. We are having a tremendous impact with this project on the ground with cross border traders, young entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs and FinTechs in general. We are making a huge difference and hope that some leaders in the FinTech industry will emerge from this project,” Teddy Soobramanien, the CBC CEO said, adding

“Our partnership with HiPipo on the Include EveryOne program has been a great example of collaboration and partnership. Collaboration is key when working on projects of such magnitude as it ensures they have expected impact. With collaboration, we are able to leverage on the comparative advantage of each and every one of us and I believe all stakeholders need to have an active involvement in such projects so that they are a success.”

First implemented in East Africa, the Include Everyone program is a broad Financial Inclusion program that engages all stakeholders with the ultimate aim of sustainably promoting financial inclusion. It promotes the adoption of secure digital financial services as a vital tool for financial inclusion.

The Include EveryOne Program has since October 2024 to date impacted thousands of beneficiaries from both Zambia and Malawi including over 100 Women in FinTech Hackathon Participants, Mentors and Facilitators, 40 FinTech organizations that participated in the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative and their end-users, more than 100 Traders’ leaders that participated in the Women in Leadership trainings and thousands of Informal Women Cross Border Traders operating in Chipata and Mwami-Mchinji One Stop Border Point – which is the main border between Zambia and Malawi.

Soobramanien highlighted that HiPipo’s Include EveryOne program well aligns with CBC’s Digital Financial Inclusion Project which aims at fast-tracking Financial inclusion, increasing participation of MSMEs in regional trade, increasing volumes of cross border transactions, increasing visibility of African products within regional markets and directly respond to the intra-trade deficit in the region.

“The move in to Digital Financial Inclusion is to solve a major problem we have in the region, which is the low level of financial inclusion. CBC has been very much involved in a number of projects aimed at empowering women, young people and SMEs to join the main stream of financial market and also help their financial inclusion. We are in the process of developing an online retail payment platform to help small traders, cross border traders, women entrepreneurs and young people trade at the level of the COMESA Region,” he said.

He acknowledged the generous contribution of the Gates Foundation in actualizing the Include EveryOne program in the COMESA region, and appealed for more support in order for the entire COMESA region to benefit from this digital and financial inclusion revolution.

“Since COMESA represents twenty-one countries, this is such a wonderful project which we would really want to extend to other countries so that the whole of the COMESA countries can benefit from the Include EveryOne Program. This project has benefited tremendous from funding from the Gates Foundation. We do hope that as we expand this program to other countries, we will continue to get funding and support from the Gates Foundation,” he concluded.

In Malawi, more than half of cross-border traders lack access to trade information and financial literacy, leading to reduced participation in trade. In addition, Malawi will soon require all cash registers to send sales receipts instantly to tax authorities. According to observers, this development has the potential to reduce the numbers of existing supplies to those willing to integrate, thereby affecting business operations for different traders.

It is against this background that a team of innovators have developed a digital platform to assist traders to improve their financial viability.

We have developed a platform called Empower Tech. The information available on this platform includes market opportunities in both Zambia and Malawi, trade agreements between the two countries, business registration, export requirements, information on COMESA’s simplified trade regime, etc,” said Mary Malunga, a co-founder at Empower Tech explained.

In addition to trade information, the platform also supports reporting of gender-based violence and includes a point-of-sale functionality.

“Since over 80 per cent of informal cross-border traders in Malawi are women, we also found that many of them face various forms of gender-based violence and sexual harassment. They can use the platform to report this,” she added.

The Empower Tech product is accessible via both USSD and a mobile application, ensuring inclusion and accessibility for all.

WOMEN IN FINTECH HACKATHON

“We have a mobile application and a WhatsApp bot, especially for Gender-Based Violence,” noted Khumbo Zimba from Empower Tech.

Empower Tech were one of the 16 FinTechs that participated in the inaugural COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon organised in Lusaka, Zambia by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC).
They praised the hackathon as a powerful experience where they learned how to develop a compelling business case.

“This Hackathon has been instrumental in assisting us develop our product, especially in terms of branding,” Malunga added.

The team was also excited to be introduced to Mojaloop open source software at the Hackathon.

“Before we came here, we didn’t know about Mojaloop we have been introduced to Mojaloop as a switch that can connect us to different digital service providers… it means should our ideas come later in future, that will include integration with payment gateways, we will not have difficulties, it will be easy for us to integrate and make payments across the COMESA region,” noted Khumbo Zimba.

Empower Tech featured on Day 40 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.

The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and start-ups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc.

In Zambia and Malawi, most informal cross-border businesses are owned by women and underserved groups. However, these businesses often struggle to secure funding due to strict banking requirements, lack of collateral, and limited investor trust.

This challenge forced a team of young innovators to design a crowdfunding platform to empower entrepreneurs with secure, transparent, and decentralized fundraising solutions using blockchain technology.

Dubbed the Entrepreneur Crowdfunding Platform, this platform connects startups, business women and small businesses to a global network of investors and backers while ensuring transparency, trust, and efficiency through the use of smart contracts and cryptocurrency.

“Our goal is to redefine the way entrepreneurs raise funds by providing them with direct access to capital while offering investors a secured way to support emerging businesses. By leveraging blockchain’s inherent benefits, we aim to disrupt the traditional crowdfunding industry and promote financial inclusion on a global scale,” noted Florence Mvula, the Founder of Entrepreneur Crowdfunding Platform.

Participation in Women In Fintech

The Entrepreneur Crowdfunding Platform was conceptualized during the inaugural COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon organised by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC).

According to Sandra Habasimbi, a co-founder, the Hackathon experience was impactful, offering the team a chance to connect with fellow innovators and gain valuable insights from mentors and facilitators from different walks of life.

They were also happy to receive training on the importance and use of Mojaloop Open-source Software and Level One Project principles such as inclusivity and instant payments.

They especially expressed their gratitude to the organisers of the hackathon, which attracted 16 teams from Zambia and Malawi, for providing such a meaningful opportunity to learn and build connections.

“We would like to thank HiPipo, COMESA Business Council and the Gates Foundation for this initiative that is bringing together like-minded people to ideate and innovate, especially products that target women and vulnerable groups,” Mvula noted.

Entrepreneur Crowdfunding Platform featured on Day 39 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.

The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and start-ups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc. 

In Zambia and Malawi, many people use out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for their health expenditure because they lack appropriate and affordable health insurance products.

This burden often leads to delayed or foregone medical care, exacerbating health disparities and increasing vulnerability to financial hardship.

Without intervention, these financial barriers are likely to perpetuate cycles of poor health and poverty among women, with broader implications for community well-being.

It is this challenge that Team MediPay set out to address when they participated in the 2025 COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon for Zambia and Malawi organised by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC).

“There are over 21 million women in Zambia and Malawi, more than half of those women do not have healthcare insurance or healthcare services. MediPay is here to change that narrative,” noted Foster Mulenga, a co-founder at MediPay.

According to team members, they developed this cross-border digital health financing and payment platform to help women have access to, save for, and pay for healthcare services.

“MediPay is a cross-border digital health financing and payment platform designed to help underprivileged women who do not have access to healthcare services by providing them with loans and insurance services,” explained Chansa Kashell Mwenya from MediPay.

Women in FinTech participation

During the Hackathon, the team developed this InsurTech platform and engaged with facilitators and mentors to further finetune their proposition.

“We intend to partner with loan [financial service providers] and insurance providers. They will be the ones to sponsor the loans and the insurance. On their side, they will have an expanded customer base through MediPay,” noted Faith Chulu from MediPay.

They described the Hackathon experience as very demanding, but ultimately rewarding.

“The experience of the Hackathon has been worth it. The networking, we have learnt new things. As software developers, we don’t normally know much about business management but we have been trained in those aspects,” added Mwenya.

The team was especially excited to be introduced to Mojaloop; an open-source software that supports real-time payment systems.

“As a subscriber on our platform, if you request for a loan on the platform, we will give you an instant payment, irrespective of whether you are in Zambia or Malawi,” she added.

MediPay featured on Day 38 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.

The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and start-ups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc. 

Many Africans are peanut lovers, yet there is a significant gap in the availability of innovative peanut snacks across the continent. To address this challenge, a team of young innovators from Zambia is developing an e-commerce web application to help organic peanut farmers sell their products.

Operating under their company, Petruwalus Food Production, this Zambian start-up is developing an e-commerce web platform and mobile application that helps organic peanut farmers and consumers to access peanut products and services.

“This platform enables a secure and seamless digital payment method for consumers of peanut snacks especially in the underserved rural communities in Africa to overcome cash transaction barriers,” said Naluca Waluka, the company CEO.

“We also plan to use this application to engage farmers nationwide, enabling us to pay them directly for the raw materials they supply,” she added.

Women in FinTech

Pretruwalus joined 15 other FinTechs from Zambia and Malawi to participate in the 2025 COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon, organised by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC).

At the Hackathon, the teams received mentorship and training in product ideation and development. According to the team members, the hackathon opened their eyes to the vast opportunities within the FinTech ecosystem, particularly through networking and mentorship.

“We have networked with different brands and through the mentorship we have received, we are confident that we will be able to expand our business,” noted Gladys Mwandila from Petruwalus.

On the technical side, the team was excited to receive training on Mojaloop and is confident about incorporating it into their product development.

“We want clearing to happen in one second. If I am sending money to you, it should be able to reach the other side in one second,” advised Philip Green from Mojaloop.

Petruwalus featured on Day 37 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.

The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and start-ups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc.