Chalo Money is using FinTech to help Farmers access digital market tools. #40Days40FinTechs Zambia and Malawi edition, Day 36

Malawi and Zambia are agriculture-driven countries, with more than half of their populations relying on smallholder farming.

However, there is currently no centralized or regulated market control at the Mwami-Mchinji one stop border post, which is the main border point between these two countries, leading to fragmented trade practices.

To address these challenges, Chalo Money has developed a USSD-based platform tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers in Malawi and Zambia.

According to Wongani Msumba, the founder of Chalo Money, this platform allows farmers to engage in both local and cross-border transactions using feature phones, which are more widely accessible in rural areas compared to smartphones. By offering affordable forex and local transfer fees, the platform reduces transaction costs and enhances market access for smallholder farmers, ultimately supporting their economic growth.

“We thought that using feature phone penetration would be good because most farmers have feature phones,” she said.

Women in FinTech Hackathon Participation

Following their participation in the COMESA Women in FinTech Hackathon organised by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council (CBC), the team is confident that the training and mentorship received were critical in refining their solution.

“Initially our solution was all over the place but following our participation in the Hackathon, we were able to narrow it down from transparency to market access down to market control,” she added.

They were especially pleased with the inclusivity aspects embedded in the Level One Project principles, which they hope to integrate into their product.

“The core principles of the Level One Project are inclusivity, interoperability and push payments, we are bringing together low-level income households to be able to participate in this financial scheme. For interoperability, we want to bring DFSPs together using Open API,” noted Horace Lwanda from Chalo Money.

Chalo Money featured on Day 36 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.