Across Africa, one of the biggest pain points for businesses mainly micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) is access to working capital. Many of the MSMEs are locked out of the credit brackets as they lack collateral, proper business documentations and records that traditional lending institutions require before loans are approved and disbursed.
It is this financial exclusion that the founders of eShandi set out to address when they founded this FinTech company in 2019.
“We are providing financial services to historically disadvantaged income groups; providing them with access to working capital, loans, payment services, investment services as well as insurance. We are banking the unbanked and bridging the 330 billion dollars financing gap faced by small business owners across sub Saharan Africa. We started in 2019 in a small town called Kitwe. We had a very small office, a small team of five people and worked with one particular market. We partnered with the market leaders there who would provide references for women traders. We piloted with one small group and later expanded to others. We started with small loans and working capital solutions. As we evolved we understood the business pain points were not only access to credit but also others such as payments, how to transfer money and safeguarding against risks like fire and theft,” Chilufya Mutale-Mwila, eShandi Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer explained.

Mutale noted that since then, eShandi has grown in to a one stop digital platform with several customer driven solutions.
“eShandi means putting the power in your hands. We bring the bank to you. This bank is a digital wallet that allows people to transact without the need of a traditional bank account. It allows people to transfer money locally and across the SADC region thanks to integrations with partners such as Mastercard and TCIB. We are also partnering with mobile money operators to reach last mile customers in sub Saharan Africa and provide our financial services to them,” She noted.
From transforming Zambia, eShandi has expanded its wings to Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya.
“We have grown from having less than 200 customers in 2019 to more than 1.5 million customers today. We started with issuing less than USD 100,000 in loans to now issuing over USD 10,000,000 in working capital to our customers. Along the way, we have faced several challenges including raising capital, getting the right teams, and regulatory issues,” Mutale said.
She commended the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for giving innovators an unparalleled platform that allows FinTechs to create innovations that solve the pain points that customers are facing across Africa.

eShandi appeared Day 10 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.