Updates

STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics have since time immemorial been at the forefront of global transformation, with most innovations rotating around it.

But, learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics is an expensive venture, requiring lots of time and resources. With this in mind, innovators are looking for smart and better ways of democratizing STEM. Many are rolling out innovations to address these challenges.

One such innovation is SmartDarasa; a digital platform with the ability to enhance normal books to make them interactive and bring content to life in the form of video, animation and 3D objects.

Founded in 2019, this platform is a next-generation learning platform helping students understand the reality and practicality of things they learn in STEM subjects.

“There is a big gap between theoretical knowledge taught in class and practical knowledge in STEM subjects which is caused by the scarcity of laboratories and insufficient laboratory tools to provide reality and practical knowledge of concepts learned in class. As a result, teachers have a hard time bridging between the theories and reality or the practicality of things they teach in class. In turn, more than 50% of students in Tanzania fail Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Geography subjects each year, and others cram than understand. This is the problem that SmartDarasa came to solve,” Elias Elisante, the Co-Founder and CEO of SmartDarasa said.

Elisante noted that to make the platform more efficient, they introduced Smart Pay; a gamified FinTech solution that enables students to purchase digital coins off the SmartDarasa platform and utilize them on the go depending on the content they want to consume.

“We are taking advantage of digital tools such as tablets and mobile phones. The STEM content is made available on these tools and with just a digital payment, teachers and students can access this content and try out as many practical lessons as possible without breaking any laboratory apparatus,” Elisante noted.

The SmartDarasa team interacted with HiPipo on the seventeenth day 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.

Elisante noted that the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is a timely intervention as it will not only attract more investors but also encourage innovators to ideate and roll out more financial inclusion solutions.

“40 Days 40 FinTechs is like a tool that seeks to understand the innovations we are implementing and the problems we are facing in rolling out these innovations. The initiative is also an advocate platform that collects our challenges and shares them with policymakers. This helps in making the ecosystem better for innovators to operate and thrive,” Elisante 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, Crosslake Technologies, 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.

Imagine you are in the middle of cooking your favorite meal and all of a sudden, everything stops due to an empty gas cylinder. To those who cook frequently, these are things that can happen now and then.

Now imagine that as soon as you find out that your gas cylinder is almost getting empty, you can through your mobile phone place a refill or replacement order and have it delivered to your kitchen doorstep.

Both these imaginations are legit; one is a problem and the other is what technology does to fix such problems.

In Dar es Salaam, GasFasta is spearheading the clean cooking revolution, aided by technology. Gas Fasta simplifies the process of ordering cooking gas from the nearest verified vendors and gives a free yet reliable delivery service to all corners of Dar es Salaam. Its catalogue features all brands of LPG gas available in Tanzania such as Oryx Gas, Taifa Gas, Mihan Gas, O Gas, Cam Gas, Alpha Gas, and Manjis Gas among others.

According to Mohamed Alberti, the Founder and CEO of GasFasta, the users of his company’s services simply download the GasFasta APP, register, add their location details, place orders, pay and enjoy free deliveries.

“We are solving the problem of accessibility, affordability and delivery to cooking gas end-users. We have an Application available on IOS and Android, and a WhatsApp chatboard. We also have a network of vendors across Dar es Salaam. We provide free delivery to end users hence making gas affordable,” Mohamed Alberti said.

He added: “We have several modes of payment. You can pay cash on delivery, or pay through the APP with mobile money or your bank account. These digital payments are supported by payment aggregators licensed by the Central Bank of Tanzania.”

Alberti noted that the uptake of GasFasta services across Dar es Salaam has been impressive and thus encouraged them to start working on an expansion strategy that will see them serve other parts of Tanzania such as Mwanza, Arusha, Moshi, Dodoma, Morogoro and Zanzibar.  

Nonetheless, he noted that consumer behaviour is among the main challenges they face as most customers still prefer the traditional manual way of ordering gas and thus need time to adjust to the technological way of placing these orders.

We interacted with GasFasta on the sixteenth day 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.

Alberti noted that the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is a timely intervention as it will not only attract more investors but also encourage innovators to ideate and roll out more financial inclusion solutions.

“We know that a lot of investors will come to Tanzania after watching these episodes. It will also encourage a lot of innovators to come up and showcase their products. More FinTechs will come out and approach 40 Days 40 FinTechs to showcase what they have and seek ways of how they can scale across Africa,” Alberti 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, Crosslake Technologies, 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.

At the start of every school term, there are always long queues of students and parents in financial institutions; some withdrawing money and others depositing the same as school fees. This is a time-consuming and risky exercise dreaded by most stakeholders.

But financial technology is reducing most of this hustle with innovators developing and launching different school fees payment and collection platforms available on mobile phones through APPs and USSD.

In Tanzania, one such solution is PayFee; a digital payments collection platform. PayFee facilitates associations and schools to collect their monthly, quarterly and yearly fees from their members through a digitized system. It allows multiple collection channels such as mobile money, bank transfers and bank deposits.

“For school fees payments, we first onboard a school as the organization that has students as its members. We know that you have to pay school fees quarterly or semiannually or annually. With this, we create a unique identifier for every student which is then linked to their parent or guardian who will be the one to pay the school fees. This unique identifier created for every student is also used as the permanent reference number as parents make the school fees payment,” Rahim Hamza Shoo, the Chief of Products and Business Development at PayFee explained.

He added: “We currently work with three banks to facilitate members contributions and payments. The school chooses to work with one of our partner banks or suggests the bank they are working with so that we can do the necessary integrations that will allow for these digital transactions to be captured into the school’s PayFee account.”

Rahim Hamza noted that high transaction costs remain the biggest obstacles to financial inclusion as they undermine most of the benefits that come with digital financial services. He nonetheless noted that in Tanzania, there are ongoing discussions between the Central Bank and FinTech stakeholders on how to further reduce the transaction charges and make financial inclusion a truly attainable goal.

We interacted with PayFee on Day 15 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.

“Having seen what the 40 Days 40 FinTechs platform has done for one start-up that I know here in Tanzania, I can say that this initiative is enormous. With this platform, there is a huge possibility for stakeholders in the space to see what we are doing and what opportunities are there for them to work with us. 40 Days 40 FinTechs gives us a chance to interact with potential investors, partners and customers,” Rajim Hamza 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.

Weddings in Africa are major social events. Families and friends plan for months on how to give a befitting ceremony to those intending to wed and the hundreds of guests that will bear them witness. These elaborate plans involve lots of funds; a fact that makes wedding contributions and pledges a key element of these events.

Since time immemorially, wedding contributions have been done physically and managed by the event finance team. But like in other activities, cash is prone to misuse. On many occasions, those in charge could divert part of the collected monies to other causes.

Nonetheless, technology is now being used to address these shortcomings. In Tanzania, a team of forward-thinking entrepreneurs have since developed M-Kadi; a digital platform that manages events’ invitations, pledges and contributions.

According to its developers, “M-Kadi is a platform, which brings solutions to challenges facing events organizers such social, corporate and government in terms of communication, distribution and sharing of information. The platform also facilitates and manages pledges, which at times involve contributing on an instalment basis.”

“We provide two main services. One is an invitation cards service; M-Kadi through mobile phones. On smartphones, invitation cards are delivered with a QR code. For feature phones, the invitation cards are delivered as a short message with a password. The second service is m-pledges where you can collect funds and financial support from your friends, relatives and the general public to support your events and projects,” Maarufu Muyaga, the Founder and CEO of M-Kadi Technologies Limited explained.

He added: “While on our platform, you register your event and a unique link is created. You can then share this link with your target audience who then will get the details of the event and start contributing. On the platform, you can pledge and then contribute in instalments through mobile money or bank cards. These contributions go directly to the person that set up the event/public cause with the platform on retaining a very minimal commission.”

Maarufu notes that the biggest challenges to African start-ups are unfair regulations and very high licensing fees which make it impossible to compete favourably with already established players. Even so, he notes that the Tanzanian government has tried to address these obstacles thus giving start-ups like M-Kadi a chance to thrive.

M-Kadi interacted with HiPipo on Day 14 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.

Maarufu noted that the 40 Days 40 FinTechs platform is transformative as it gives start-ups a chance to scale up and serve more people.

“40 Days 40 FinTechs is playing a great role. It gives us a chance to be visible to so many people; customers, policy makers and potential investors. Last year we received so many calls from people who watched our story from this initiative. It helps start-ups a lot,” Maarufu 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.

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.