Diseases related to consumption of dirty water are common across Africa as many families have no access to safe and clean water. This is particularly common in the low-income settlements.
But innovators are using technology to ease this burden. In Malawi, iMoSyS; a 15 years old ICT company recently developed a FinTech supported platform that provides clean water to the less privileged.
“iTap is essentially an ATM that provides water and not money. This is for low income earners living in areas without access to clean water. We work with water utility companies to extend this service. We set up a kiosk/ATM that disperses water. We then give the families in these communities a digital card which they swipe to access water. This card is topped up with mobile money and allows these families to access clean water any time,” Gehazi Jenda, a Senior Software Developer at iMoSyS said.
He noted that iTap has built about 500 water Kiosks in Malawi and served close to 500,000 people in these communities.
“We recently launched this service in Uganda and set up a few clean water Kiosks there.”
Minus iTap, Jenda noted that iMoSyS’ other key FinTech product is Alonda – an e-commerce platform that connects service providers to potential customers.
“Alonda allows service providers to connect with customers, and also accepts payments using mobile money wallets as well as VISA. Currently Alonda is available on Google Play and Apple store, has about 1500 service providers and close to 70,000 users – customers to the listed service providers,” Jenda said.

Jenda noted that while a lot of progress has been made across Malawi, low smart phone penetration, low acceptance of digital payments, and limited digital and financial literacy remain key barriers that need to be addressed for FinTech to thrive.
“A lot of low-income households have feature phones so any initiatives that come need to accommodate that aspect. They need to accommodate people that use only feature phones. They need to be affordable and be able to facilitate connections and transactions,” he urged.
iMoSyS appeared on Day 11 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.