Updates

Established in 1994, FINCA Malawi is an active financial institution in Malawi, serving over 35,000 customers; 70 per cent of these being rural based while at least 50 per cent are Women.

According to Takondwa Chirwa, the Marketing Manager at FINCA Malawi, FINCA intentionally supports women because while ‘women are core’, they have for so long been the least included.

“Women are core so if we start with targeting women then we are supporting the whole household. Most women are more active in small businesses and they lack financing for their businesses. So, we support them with working capital so that they can be financially independent and run sustainable businesses,” Takondwa

She noted that in period between January – 2024 and March – 2025, FINCA Malawi rolled out several FINTECH driven gender intentional innovations including FINCA AIRTEL MGODI that allows mobile money agents to have liquidity through overdraft loans, FINCA Mobile Upgrade aimed at increasing access for customers – especially women in the rural areas, and FINCA EduSmart – an education finance product for students, parents, guardians and schools.

“The final major innovation we rolled out in the past twelve months is FINCA Clean Energy. Through this, we offer customers loans for purchasing gas cooking equipment or solar powered systems. This product is supporting women doing small businesses such as roadside vendors that cook and sell mandazi. Instead of using charcoal or firewood, we are through these loans encouraging them to use clean energy,” she noted.

Takondwa noted that low digital acceptability and limited support for start-ups are some of the main challenges slowing financial inclusion. She urged the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative to support Malawi’s ecosystem with strategic collaborations, and technical assistance.

FINCA Malawi featured on Day 16 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.

For financial inclusion to be achieved, the people at bottom of the pyramid must be give special focus as they are not only the majority but also dearly need to access digital financial services to transform their lives.

In Zambia, one of the companies that is contributing to last-mile financial inclusion is iZyane InovSolutions; a FinTech start-up that has built and deployed solutions for service aggregation companies, mobile financial services, banks, micro-finance, and insurance companies in areas such as mobile banking, merchant payment platforms, digital cash management, and cash collections platforms.

“We have developed solutions that enable point of sale terminals to not only accept card payments but also accept mobile money wallets. We consider this as a key financial inclusion activity because when you go to remote areas of Zambia and Malawi, you will find that most people don’t have bank cards but have mobile money wallets. As such we have been able to include them in the digital payment ecosystem and they are now able to transact on these points of sale using their mobile money wallets,” Ackim Chisha, the of Co-Founder – iZyane InovSolutions said.

He added: “Apart from that, we are supporting the COMESA Regional Digital Retail Payments Platform. We are a system integrator for COMESA Business Council and currently doing the integration for all the financial institutions between Malawi and Zambia and later on we shall integrate other countries. On completion, this platform will do several things such as merchant payments and cross border money transfers.”

Chisha identified underdeveloped infrastructure, poor connectivity, low digital & financial literacy, language barrier and long waits before licenses are issued as some of the main challenges ailing the FinTech industry.  

“One of the major things I have seen in Africa is that for you to get a license, it takes more than six months. You can imagine as a FinTech, you have done your work and your solution is ready but then you are subjected to a process that calls for proper organization structures and credible board members among other requirements; surely this process takes quite some time. Well as I understand why these processes are in place, I believe they can be improved, accelerated for the benefit of all stakeholders,” he said.

Chisha acknowledged that the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is timely and should actually continue and expand to other regions as it will onboard and support more FinTechs.

iZyane InovSolutions was featured on Day 15 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.

Golden Swift Money Transfer, a subsidiary of Golden Success Investments Limited is contributing to Zambia’s financial inclusion drive through enabling people to conveniently send and receive money digitally, anywhere, anytime.

According to Alick Chali, the Founder and CEO of Golden Swift Money Transfer, though in its infant stages, their company is ‘a cutting edge FinTech start-up based in Zambia that seeks to revolutionize payments and money transfers’.

“We started this platform after realizing that traditional banks charge high remittance fees and usually take long for cross border transactions to be completed. As such, we have developed a platform that enables our users to conveniently send money from wherever they are. We developed this platform to ensure that every person has access to an affordable, secure and fast money transfer platform,” he said, adding:

“We are keen to see that even the unbanked can use our APP to send and receive money as well as paying for goods and government services. We have incorporated AI and Blockchain technology to detect any fraud on our system and ensure safety.”

Chali identified regulatory and licensing delays, low trust for innovations, and poor infrastructure as some of the main challenges affecting the Fintech industry.

He appealed to the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative to support start-ups like Golden Swift Money Transfer with visibility, exposure and funding that will allow innovation scaling and serving more people.

Golden Swift Money Transfer featured on Day 14 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.

Managing children’s trips is always a hustle; be it going to school, church, shopping or a party. It is time consuming as parents and guardians struggle to get the right drivers and cars to transport the young ones. In the absence of this, parents and guardians must transport the children themselves.

Having witnessed firsthand how bothersome kids transport was in her early days, Tetiwe Nzimah set out to change this and give children a better experience.

“I was raised by my parents in the Copperbelt. My mum ran a daycare and primary school. Having helped her with the operations, we could see how the taxi drivers then could literally drive the pupils carelessly so that they could go back to their park/stages and make more money. At the time, there were no ride-hailing services. Fast forward, I moved to Lusaka and it was even worse. Issues like traffic, careless driving, kidnapping, overloading of the children and accidents were on a rampant. It is this that inspired me to start Kiddies Commute,” Tetiwe Nzimah explained.

Kiddies Commute is state-of-the-art digital platform designed to give parents and guardians complete control and peace of mind over their children’s transportation. The platform has real-time tracking, an easy to use booking system, safe drivers and secure digital payments.

“We enable parents have a peace of mind as we provide a safe and reliable commute for their children; be it to school or any other destination. All the drivers on our platform are heavily vetted and fully trained to transport the children. On the parents’ side, they just have to create an account on our APP and start booking the rides. When booking, the parents include the number of children set to travel and their destination. The system automatically calculates the fare after which the parents pay digitally – mobile money or bank transaction. Once the payment is received, a driver and car are assigned to go and pick the children. The parent is able to track the ride from the pick-up point until drop off,” Nzimah noted.

She noted that some of the challenges Fintech start-ups like hers are facing in Zambia include limited mentorship and networking, access to funding, and rigidness from potential users.

Nzimah appreciated the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for giving start-ups an opportunity to showcase their innovations and reach wider markets.

“This initiative is giving us a platform as thriving start-ups in the FinTech space to have a wider market reach. It is also helping build a healthier ecosystem where we can all come together; connect, complement and collaborate with one another,” she noted.

Kiddies Commute featured on Day 13 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.

For those accustomed to tour and travel, you know the lengthy processes involved in doing bookings; getting the right transport, accommodation, and meals, among others is always troublesome. The same happens with events where revelers have to buy physical tickets, and queue in long lines for tickets verification before they are granted access.

It is such issues that Kwenda; a traveltech and e-ticketing platform came to address in Southern Africa, starting with Malawi.

Officially launched in 2024, Kwenda is on a mission to empower travelers & revelers, drive travel & tourism growth and support innovations.

According to Lumbani Gondwe, the Founder and CEO of Kwenda, this digital platform is currently using technology to simplify travel and ticketing in Malawi.

“We are digitizing travel by making it possible for people to seamless book for buses online, pay digitally and enjoy their travel. We also have an e-ticketing platform – the first of its kind in Malawi. Since its launch, our e-ticketing platform has handled most of the big events that have happened in Malawi,” Gondwe said.

He added: “To enable our customers have a great experience, we have integrated with several payment solutions. On the platform, users are able to pay using mobile money or bank cards. In this short time, we have had some amazing numbers. In less than a year, we have supported more than 60 music, entertainment and sports events. We currently have over 15,000 active users that buy tickets and also do travel bookings using Kwenda.”

He nonetheless revealed that as a FinTech start-up, they are faced with several challenges including under-developed technology infrastructure, unstable internet connections and low industry growth.

Gondwe urged the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative to support Malawi’s nascent Fintech industry with capacity building, industry connections, collaborations and fundraising.

Kwenda has been featured on Day 12 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.

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.

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.

The advent of mobile money in third world and developing countries has contributed massively to financial inclusion for both the underserved and unserved.

First launch in Kenya around 2007, mobile money has with in two decades spread across Africa.

In Malawi, the largest mobile money operator – Airtel Money launched in 2012 and has since grown in to a key financial inclusion enabler for the country. Its flagship financial services include local person to person transactions, bill payments, and international remittances.

“At Airtel Money, we believe that FinTech is the future and we want to go beyond the simple cash ins and cash-outs. We have added several products to drive financial inclusion. These include collateral free digital loans, Phuka digital savings in partnership with Old Mutual, Limodzi Insurance in partnership with Britam. We have also integrated our system with all the eight banks in Malawi to enhance liquidity for our agents and customers. We have improved the lives of hundreds of agents especially women; who are able to make good commission from Airtel Money and support their needs,” Virginia Jere, the Head of Marketing at Airtel Money, Malawi said.

She further explained: “The Airtel Money revolution is not based on mere stories but backed up by data. FinScope Malawi, 2023 reported that financial exclusion dropped drastically from 51 per cent in 2014 to 12 per cent. This was largely contributed by the penetration of mobile money operators which increased from 3 per cent in 2014 to 69 per cent in 2023. The National ICT survey for 2023 revealed that Airtel Money is the largest mobile money operator in Malawi contributing up to 84.9 per cent of the Mobile Money network. This means that out of 100 mobile money users in Malawi, 85 customers are using Airtel Money. This is a very significant revolution.”

Jere highlighted that this impressive performance is not without challenges; noting that high illiteracy rates, fraud and high cost of devices remain key barriers to financial inclusion.

She commended the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for looking out for and telling life changing stories.

“The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is timely for us at Airtel Money. It will amplify our visibility and also foster collaborations with partners especially now that we are driving the FinTech platform. We remain committed to shaping the future of finance by building the most instant, secure and borderless mobile money ecosystem for every Malawian,” Jere concluded.

Airtel Money, Malawi has featured on Day 9 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.

Innovators across Africa continue to encounter several barriers such as high operational costs when starting up. Many can’t afford office space, data, airtime and transport and other needed logistics.

In different countries across Africa, such challenges are eased by innovation and technology centers which Innovators turn in to their ideation, incubation and launch bases. While these spaces are not entirely free, they are much cheaper and well equipped for innovators to succeed.

In Zambia, one of such places is BongoHive; an innovation and technology hub. For over 14 years, BongoHive has been working with start-ups and other organizations; helping them become sustainable and investor ready.

“Our mission is to unlock Africa’s potential by working with various entrepreneurs so that we can achieve a smart Africa. In the past 14 years, we have helped over 2,800 start-ups. These include over 1000 women founded and led start-ups. One of our main women focused programs is the Standard Chartered Women in Tech. Some 160 Zambian female founders have been funded with 20,000 USD by this program,” Tilyenji Mundungani, Marketing and Communications Lead at BongoHive, Zambia said.

She noted that in the course of their work, they have observed a glaring financial literacy gap which they are now bridging through trainings and supporting FinTech innovations.

“Some of the works we have done include the Investor Ready Hackathon in partnership with MTN Zambia. This Hackathon was able to prepare our start-ups to understand how they can become investor ready. We also had the FinTech For You Solution. This one gave our start-ups financial literacy and financial understanding lessons,” Mundungani said.

She noted that rigid policies, limited access to funding and unreachable global markets remain some of the main challenges affecting start-ups across Africa.

“We at BongoHive welcome any collaborations and partnerships that will help bring in bigger organizations that can further support our start-ups. Currently we are more bent towards supporting more women founded and led start-ups because we have noticed that women have been the least included on matters like access to funding across Africa. So, if we could work with organizations like HiPipo, COMESA Business Council and others to support women businesses, then it would be a plus for us,” Mundungani concluded.

BongoHive appeared on Day 8 of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative; Zambia and Malawi edition. Though not a FinTech, BongoHive is home to several Zambia founded and based FinTechs. 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.