Pay per Coin seeks to give Farmers value for money. #40Days40FinTechs Zambia and Malawi edition, Day 28

Ashers Foods, an Agriculture value addition start-up found some 200 kilometers outside Lilongwe, Malawi has a developed a digital payment platform that ensures that farmers get full value for their money.

Though in its infant stages, Pay per Coin seeks to ensure that farmers, offtakers and suppliers transact digitally; pay and receive the exact amounts without losing any coin.

“As part of our Agriculture value addition work, we found out that most offtakers and suppliers have challenges with handling payments and financial management. Many were complaining that whenever they are making payments, they lose money. For example, if one was paying 49 dollars and 20 cents, they would pay 50 dollars and won’t get the change/balance back. They end up losing money in these small figures, which becomes a lot at the end of the whole transaction. It is from this experience that we came up with Pay per Coin to encourage our suppliers and offtakers to use electronic payments which ensure that they pay the exact amount and don’t lose any coin,” Watupa Wyson Mtambo, the Founder and Operations Manager of Ashers Foods, the organization behind the Pay per Coin innovation said. 

Watupa noted that Pay per Coin allows its users to pay for their goods or services and also receive payment for the goods or services they supplied in local currency.

“Pay per Coin also allows other services such as purchase of talk time, payment of utilities bills, sending and receiving money. In a transaction, the platform allows you to pay the exact amount without losing any cents,” she said.

She noted that as a new platform, they are facing several challenges including poor connectivity, digital and financial illiteracy, limited funding and low public acceptability and trust of digital innovations.

She urged the organizers of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative to roll-out more digital and financial literacy trainings focusing on farmers and cross border traders as knowledge acquired from these workshops will propel their businesses to greater heights in addition to building more trust for digital innovations.

“CBC and HiPipo should give us more trainings that are in line with digital payment platforms and how such platforms can operate not only in one country but several countries. For example, I am also a cross border trader operating in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and some times Mozambique. Such trainings on cross border digital payments platforms would help me and other cross border traders address issues such as forex exchange.” 

Pay per Coin featured on Day 28 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.