The company, dedicated to continuously building a strong, reliable and resilient financial payments infrastructure to allow its customers to access new physical and digital services that add value, is also transforming the landscape of commercial and aid payments through its Enterprise Payments Platform (EPP).

EPP is a secure, efficient, safe and cost-effective solution for collections and bulk payments and is built off the successful use case of Mukuru’s widely known remittance services.

This case study explores how Mukuru’s EPP is addressing the challenges associated with aid disbursements, payroll, and commercial transactions in underserved communities, including limited financial infrastructure, high transaction costs and issues regarding security, speed and regulations.

It examines how EPP is revolutionising bulk payments in these critical sectors, with a focus on Malawi and Zimbabwe, by tackling the difficulties businesses and aid organisations encounter when serving remote areas.

The challenge

Tererai Mare, Enterprise Market Development Manager at Mukuru, explains that before EPP, businesses and nonprofits had to rely on traditional methods such as mobile money and banks to facilitate bulk payments.

“These methods presented limitations — high transaction and encashment fees, delays, and limited reach in rural areas,” Mare says. “These issues hindered the efficient distribution of aid and management of payroll, especially in vulnerable communities.”

Aid organisations faced significant hurdles in making bulk payments, while remote communities had limited access to affordable and convenient financial services. This created delays in aid reaching those in need and added financial pressure on businesses.

The solution

EPP was built on Mukuru’s extensive person-to-person physical and digital payment infrastructure across Africa. The platform, known for its reach and liquidity, has many benefits, explains Mare.

These include:

• Instant payouts: Funds reach beneficiaries instantly through cash collection points or digital wallets.
• Traceability: The platform offers full transaction tracking, which enhances transparency. This is vital for aid agencies for financial reporting to secure ongoing funding.
• Competitive fees: Lower costs benefit both businesses and nonprofits.
• Extensive network: Mukuru’s branches, booths and mobile disbursement teams, alongside a rich network of partner locations, provide exceptional reach across southern and eastern Africa.
• Security: The best technology and processes ensure secure transactions.
• Flexibility: EPP caters to aid, commercial, and social grant distribution needs.

Aid Agency Applications:

Malawi

Chiyembekezo Ken Ndala, Enterprise Sales Manager for Malawi at Mukuru, shares that the company partnered with CADECOM National Office for emergency flood relief in the aftermath of a recent cyclone.

“CADECOM used the Mukuru platform to reach 4,520 households across several underserved areas,” Ndala says. The timely distribution of funds allowed families to recover quickly and have their basic needs met.

Mukuru also partners with Yamba Malawi, which provides monthly stipends to teenage mothers.

“Yamba Malawi supports teen mothers, each receiving $20 per month for 12 months, with an additional $100 as seed capital after six months. This funding helps them care for their children and start small businesses to break the cycle of poverty,” Ndala explains.

As an ongoing project, Mukuru has disbursed over $100,000 (MK183,600,000) to these beneficiaries.

Zimbabwe

Michael Scott, Group Head of Commercial at Mukuru, says that Mukuru has built extensive partnerships with United Nations agencies, including UNICEF, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and the World Food Programme (WFP).

“Mukuru was awarded a contract by WFP to distribute monthly cash grants to refugees at the Tongogara Refugee Camp. EPP enables efficient delivery and end-to-end traceability of essential emergency funds to this vulnerable community” Scott explains.

Scott explains that Mukuru has been awarded prestigious Long-Term Agreements by both UNICEF and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), underscoring its capability and reliability in delivering essential financial services across Africa.

Under these agreements, Mukuru has facilitated payments to beneficiaries under emergency social cash transfer programming in Zimbabwe, alongside the provision of payroll services and payments to vendors and workshop participants.

International NGOs, like Action Contre la Faim, have partnered with Mukuru to deliver cash transfers to remote households via Mukuru’s mobile disbursement service. Mukuru’s mobile teams schedule trips to these hard-to-reach areas and provide regular access to financial services, supporting a base level of financial inclusion and social upliftment otherwise not possible.

Payroll and Commercial Applications:

Mare explains that Mukuru also serves the varying needs of businesses needing to make payments to their employees, customers or smaller suppliers, who may not have bank accounts.

“Many workers earn low salaries, making bank accounts unaffordable due to high transaction and maintenance fees. EPP helps these workers receive payments efficiently, without encashment or ongoing account fee, addressing a major financial inclusion gap.”

On the commercial side, Mukuru partners with the likes of Cottco and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors, heavyweights in Zimbabwe’s cotton and tobacco industries, to facilitate payments to small-scale farmers. “These farmers often don’t have bank accounts and come from far and wide to sell or auction their goods. Mukuru’s EPP ensures they receive payments securely and swiftly. A Mukuru cash voucher is as trusted as the USD cash for which it can be exchanged, but safer to travel with on long journeys to and from the auction floors,” Mare adds.

Conclusion

Mukuru’s EPP has redefined bulk payments and aid distribution for organisations struggling with traditional methods. Whether payroll or commercial settlement for businesses, or emergency aid for vulnerable communities, Mukuru offers efficiency, transparency, and security.

With its vast network and proven ability to reach even the most remote areas, Mukuru continues to drive financial inclusion while streamlining bulk payments, reducing transaction costs, improving traceability and accountability, and minimising delays — critical when delivering aid.

The Harvard Business Review describes the secret of corporate success as ‘human magic’.

A culture that creates a space within which people thrive and where their ambitions, passions and commitment translate into productivity, results and shared growth.

It is also an essential investment into the business at a time when people are feeling invisible and stressed amidst a storm of geopolitical and economic instability.

The International Monetary Fund report released halfway through 2024 found that while global growth looks relatively stable on the surface, there are undercurrents affecting overall positivity and momentum.

The world is, as the report describes, in a sticky spot. And people do not work in isolation of these undercurrents.

Gallup found that 20% of the world’s employees are lonely, engagement is stagnating and overall well-being is on a decline.

The cost of this disengaged, deflated workforce, says the company, is in the region of $8.9 trillion and approximately 9% of the global gross domestic product (GDP). Employees are also feeling replaceable.

The American Psychological Association (APA) shows that the mercurial economic, social and political environments are influencing employee decision-making and needs. Employees are increasingly seeking stability, well-being, and meaning in their work.

Unfortunately, the lingering effects of the pandemic continue to destabilize organisational foundations. As a result, both companies and employees are grappling to regain their equilibrium.

Defining employee potentialising

People are not a pillar within the business, they are its foundation. If they are committed, engaged and supported, then they deliver that elusive magic and bring their energy that can ignite a company’s culture. And ticking all of these boxes comes down to leadership.

The environment follows the leader – people will want to give more, be more and create more if they feel that they are working within a company that values their potential, and recognises their worth.

Potentialising employees means measuring the success of a business against the success of its people.

Your business can invest in all of the right baseline tools such as leadership enablement, benchmarking, and referencing against people practices, but if you’re not actually putting people at the centre of these conversations, you’re not prioritising their potential.

People don’t want to hear about benchmarks and metrics and standards – they’re important, sure, but people want to hear about the people-things.

They want to know what your business is doing to enable their success. This takes people-centricity a level up.

At Mukuru, we have spent time building our foundations so we can embrace the concept of potentialising the employee.

We have the compliance, the certifications and the standards – for example, we did not publicise being BB-BEE compliant for the first time in 20 years, not because it is not newsworthy, but rather because we understand and see this as a step towards unlocking opportunities for our people.

It is how we ensure we continue to create employment opportunities and expand the skillsets of employees and potential employees, thereby supporting the growth of our current and future talent.

Redefining people within growth

Mukuru is driving commercial outcomes by prioritising our interactions with people, both inside and outside the organisation. Every person within the company is skilled and a leader of their own roles, and masters of their destinies.

Recognising their individuality and embracing diversity, enables the cultivation of spaces where our people can thrive.

This, in turn, enhances our interactions with customers. Happy employees lead to satisfied clients, and happy customers make for a successful business.

Creating a psychologically safe space for employees ensures that people feel they truly belong. As a recent Harvard Business Review study into the value of human-centred leadership found, employee fulfilment rests on the foundations of leadership, recognising the individual, and meeting unique needs.

Levelling up on servant leadership is heart leadership. Heart leadership champions empathy and elevates humanity and authenticity, where leaders relate to employees by investing, empowering and caring for them. This is the secret sauce to potentialising.

The myth of a 9-to-5 model to drive employee productivity must be shattered once and for all, and in its place, we need flexible work environments that align employee and organisational needs – building spaces that allow people to thrive.

Nobody needs to be perfect. None of us are perfect. Nobody needs to fit a specific mould. We need to smash the mould and elevate uniqueness.

The primary goal, particularly at Mukuru, is to inspire people to fully embrace their authentic selves in their roles while fostering a culture of mutual respect and civility.

When the organisation prioritises and shows up for its people, the people become motivated to invest in themselves and wholly show up for the organisation. And this synergy is when it truly discovers the value of potentialising its employees.

[Featured Photo Credit]

This is where fintech has been a game-changer on the continent. However, we are far from having arrived at a place of full formal financial inclusion, which means leading financial services companies underpinned by the best fintech technology must continue to champion digital transformation across the continent’s financial ecosystem.

It starts with a deep commitment to interoperability. In our world, interoperability means you are agnostic towards the type of money that people use.

So, whether it’s cash, digital wallets, or cards, it starts with opening your network to all the players in the ecosystem.

In our business, this philosophy underpins our belief in a “two-sided network” wherein customers and enterprises alike stimulate flows through initial payment interactions, which in turn stimulate subsequent flows and through network effects increase the speed at which the payment fly-wheel turns!.

Interoperability ensures that the customer has a voice, and the consequence of this is that weak propositions get overlooked at best and squashed in the theatre of public opinion at worst.

This interoperable customer-centric approach stands in stark contrast to the walled-garden mentality that has plagued some financial institutions, where – it could be argued – the focus is on maintaining control rather than serving the needs of the people.

When considering the bigger picture of unlocking the untapped growth potential in Africa, the vision of a leading financial services provider needs to extend beyond the non-negotiable interoperability and encompass the vast opportunities presented by the continent.

Africa continues to be a huge focus for us at Mukuru precisely because it is a massive untapped growth area, and so the orientation is geared towards continuing to monetise this potential.

We are constantly asking ourselves: How do we continue to capture more and more of the existing, and growing, remittance flow and secure it in a formal context?

This requires constant innovation and a finger tightly on the pulse of what the customers are saying and asking for. This cannot be overstated.

In a sector awash with well-used jargon, digital transformation will continue to be front of mind. This is because digitisation is sweeping across the African financial landscape.

Of course, certainly, from our perspective, we have witnessed a massive shift in the numbers of people adopting a digital store of money and interacting and transacting with the digital economy.

This should always remain front and centre – walking the journey of financial inclusion with customers… but, as already mentioned, only if it is built on giving customers solutions to their existing problems. There is little logic in creating a shiny service and hoping to create demand.

No discussion about the flow of money in Africa is complete without understanding the importance of mobile wallets. From our perspective, working towards having a wallet in each market where we operate ensures seamless operations.

This is strategic in addition to being pragmatic, as it enables a unified customer experience, which – when good – drives customer loyalty and trust.

Our business is also pragmatic, in that it recognises the importance of addressing the demographic shifts and labour shortages in the global north, where an ageing population and a dearth of workers in certain sectors create a demand for migrants.

By facilitating the flow of remittances and fostering financial inclusion, we work to capitalise on this dynamic and drive sustainable growth in the region, while also playing a big part in ensuring critical funds reach families for basic requirements such as food, education and housing while helping these customers take incremental steps on their digitisation journeys.

Leading fintechs will know that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

This is why, as a business, we are actively pursuing strategic partnerships to bolster our brand association and position ourselves as a leading player in the industry.

Innovation is at the centre of everything, and we are close to signing transformative deals that will have a marked impact not only on Mukuru but on the broader industry in Africa.

The fintechs that go the furthest in terms of unlocking Africa’s immense potential will be the ones that remain deeply committed to driving digital innovation and fostering financial inclusion while capitalising on the vast opportunities presented by this diverse, vibrant continent.

We believe that by embracing true interoperability, digital transformation at its most granular level, and by investing in strategic partnerships, next-generation financial services platforms will continue to be trailblazers in the evolving financial landscape in Africa. The potential that will be unlocked will be nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The fintech, which operates in more than 50 countries with over 450 remittance corridors and more than 14-million+ users, says the product was developed as a result of strong demand from the massive Southern African diaspora in the UK.

The new instant transfer product will appeal to the existing customer base, as well as upwardly mobile and banked consumers who are globally connected but are seeking a simpler and quicker way to transfer money internationally.

Andy Jury, Mukuru CEO, says the business set out to build a truly instantaneous solution.

“The key point of differentiation is that it genuinely is almost immediate. There’s no money lingering in the complicated payment ecosystem for 48 or 72 hours. Excluding the competitive fees, you could send money to a UK bank account and then back to South Africa in less than a minute,” he says.

Jury explains that the solution is designed for transferring “discretionary allowance”, such as sending money quickly to a family member. “It was important to the team to come up with a solution that is simple to use,” he explains.

“Our existing customers already use WhatsApp and so being able to transfer money internationally using WhatsApp is an important characteristic of the solution. In addition to this, using the Mukuru App for these transfers offers mobile and on-the-move users a host of benefits, such as ease of use, as well as virtual verifications within the App.

“If you compare it to the fees of major banks or fintechs it is well-priced, but the real differentiator is that it happens in real time, is frictionless and the user knows where the money is. There is no needless waiting.”

Naturally, the complexity of the system and technology that enables instant transfers into a UK bank account if transferring from South Africa, and into a Mukuru wallet or local bank account in South Africa if transferring from the UK, is “next level”, according to Jury.

Being bi-directional and frictionless, the solution has been described as transformative and an important evolution in the money transfer industry.

Digital wallet use, especially in Africa, makes sense when so many people live in rural areas where there isn’t easy access to another way of accessing money, such as through ATMs. 

Bank of America predicts that by 2026, digital wallets will be used by more than 5.3-billion people, which is more than 50% of the world’s population.

Other estimates suggest this number may even be as high as two-thirds of the world’s population, growth that is being driven by emerging markets, particularly African economies.

Globally, the main driver for digital products was COVID-19, which forced people indoors and encouraged the use of digital products.

This, says Bank of America, was particularly prevalent globally among older customers and those who had previously stuck to traditional ways of purchasing goods or banking.

In Africa, the local e-payments market is likely to see revenues gain by around 20% percent a year, according to McKinsey.

This means that the market will be worth about $40-billion by 2025. By comparison, the global market is expected to grow at 7% a year over the same time.

However, cash is still king. McKinsey says that while digital is growing rapidly as a payment form, cash is still used for 90% of all transactions on the continent, adding that because cash still dominates, offline channels and large cash network points such as Mukuru’s 320,000 access points where people can interact with cash at a booth or through an agent are still vital.

It is also important to recognise that not having a smartphone or access to 4G shouldn’t be a limiting factor for financial inclusion, which is why making use of USSD and WhatsApp (which consumes less data) is often a critical factor determining whether a financial service provider will be relevant in many African markets.

Convergence and continuum from cash to digital

As eWallets have evolved, they have moved on from being a cash-in and cash-out system to a system that enables and unlocks financial inclusion digitally.

The transition happened organically because trust was built over time on the ability to move and store cash seamlessly, making life easier for cash-based customers.

As trust grew, more digital financial products have been offered to customers.

As customers transact, they build a financial record that can unlock multiple products, as well as access to credit.

At Mukuru, we have remained focused on this layering of services, underpinned by trust and market education. As customers have become more digitally savvy, we were able to offer insurance and then loans, leveraging the customer’s transaction history to assess their credit capacity.

McKinsey calls this Wallet 2.0 and points out that there is now a move to Wallet 3.0, which is an offering that adds in-app shopping.

Mukuru customers can access multiple billers through digital channels, such as airtime, utilities or DSTV, and more services will be added in the future. The objective is to enable the other side of the equation, so to speak, by empowering merchants whose customers have more solutions and options to use their digitally stored money.

In practice, we have found that most merchants still prefer cash due to its immediacy and perceived lower cost of business — they have to pay to accept card or mobile money and sometimes that payment is not received until several days after the transaction.

The International Monetary Fund says that the informal economy is a large part of most economies in sub-Saharan Africa.

This sector accounts for between 25% and 65% of GDP, and between 30% and 90% percent of all non-agricultural employment.

This situation is not likely to change any time soon and so merchants would do well to offer both digital and cash options, in other words take a phygital approach, to take advantage of the growth opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Transforming a cash-based economy into a digital one requires multiple actors in the economy to act in unison, but when done deliberately, it becomes an extension of people’s natural behaviour, taking them from cashing out transfers to the realisation they can store money digitally, transfer it to another person or seamlessly pay for any goods or services.

However, without understanding that cash still plays an important role in this process, those who only operate in the digital space will be confined to a niche market and be left behind in Africa’s fast-paced digital revolution.

This enables it to help many of those whose lives and ability to earn were disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns and other economic issues.

At the same time, Mukuru has started using its established platforms to help businesses transfer cash around the countries in which it currently operates, offering a bespoke service making use of its current network.

The next generation financial services platform and fintech enabler will be rolling out aid transfers to more countries as it helps several UN organisations and other aid NGOs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, Food and Agricultural Association, Red Cross, and Oxfam.

Mukuru has rapidly expanded its Enterprise services across Southern Africa, with significant focus on Zimbabwe, where it is already a uniquely trusted financial services brand and there is an acute need for assistance.

This need is exemplified by its long standing work with World Food Programme (WFP) project aid officials at the Tongogara Refugee Camp, where it distributes aid to thousands of vulnerable refugees, alongside support for the community.

Here, it employs four staff from the camp to assist with service provision and has donated books and stationery.

“Positive feedback from WFP at Tongogara has given us the opportunity to expand to other camps in Zimbabwe, and we have also been contracted by other NGOs that assist with Bulk Cash Disbursements within the Tongogara Refugee Camp, such as World Vision, Church World Services, and Childline,” says Kevin Nyakotyo, Mukuru Enterprise Sales Manager.

Mukuru is currently onboarding clients across its extensive African footprint, using its reach and capabilities to ensure on-time payments for millions, and building exciting capabilities in newer markets such as Uganda, where it launched outbound and inbound remittance services this year.

Safe transfers

Michael Scott, group head of Commercial at Mukuru, explains that institutional aid donors insist on strict audit and accountability standards to eliminate corruption and mismanagement when funding cash disbursement projects, as these can easily erode the value intended for delivery to vulnerable recipients.

“Our money transfer system allows for end-to-end traceability, ensuring that aid organisations can be audited without worrying about oversights in accountability. It also means that, on the off chance that there is fraud, this can quickly be identified and resolved,” says Scott. This accountability is enabled through its ability to identify and digitally capture the details of recipients in real-time at the point of cash disbursement, storing uniquely identifiable recipient information for inspection by Enterprise clients; auditors can verify a collection against digital copies of the recipient’s identity document and collection slip.,

Mukuru, a household name across Southern Africa, operates an extensive regional network, providing its customers with convenient access to key financial services close to where they live and work.

For example, says Nyakotyo:

“Mukuru currently offers a much-needed service in Zimbabwe. As many banks are closing branches, Mukuru is consistently expanding its network of Mukuru-owned and partner payout locations to ensure exceptional urban and rural reach across the country, allowing accessible cash distribution. ”

Nyakotyo adds that Mukuru prides itself in offering accessible solutions to customers with varying levels of basic, financial and technical literacy.

Where mobile data network coverage is poor, making service via app or WhatsApp difficult, USSD enables continued access to Mukuru’s platforms. “To ensure financial inclusion, we need to be where the people are. Especially in terms of humanitarian aid principles, we realise that our offering needs to be relevant and suitable in harsh environments.”

Some 80% of all labour migration in Africa is intra-regional, with the bulk of these people being low-skilled workers.

Most African countries are either sources of, or destinations of, migrant flow, and those who move fill demand for roles in agriculture, fishing, mining, and construction as well as services such as domestic work, health care, cleaning, restaurants, and hotels.

To ensure that Mukuru gets cash to the recipients, it has supplemented its network of branches with over one thousand booths, each of which houses one or more Mukuru tellers, and allows people to pay in, and cash out, across rural areas of Southern Africa, says Nyakotyo.

A Mukuru booth brings socially uplifting financial services to a community, as well as employment opportunities for the teller and booth support services.

“We create a safe environment for beneficiaries to come and collect. We don’t want to make it difficult for them to access their funds. We serve everyone with the dignity that they deserve. It’s something we do proudly.”

Other services the company offers, and which it will continue to expand upon, includes Cash Transfers, Mukuru Funeral Cover, Enterprise and Aid Payments as well as the Mukuru Card.

The enterprise segment is a new area, and one that makes perfect sense, says Scott. “Having developed this extensive network to meet customers where they are geographically located, it made sense to extend our offerings to businesses, governments and nonprofits, where we can be as trusted as we are in the person-to-person space.” It provides a self-service web portal for these organisations to manage their transfers in real time and monitor progress of disbursements; bespoke reporting ensures that organisations can confidently rely on Mukuru to deliver the last mile.

At this time of the year there is usually a flurry of articles attempting to lay out trends to look out for in various industries over the coming months.

This is a good exercise as it gets one thinking about industries broadly and technology specifically.

However, it would be remiss to embark on this exercise without first taking stock of where we are now. The fintech ecosystem is currently in a period of stress, less so for incumbents but noticeably for newcomers.

This stress is a direct result of macroeconomic pressures piling up to generate headwinds for new market entrants.

As we all know, when the macro picture is less than rosy it affects play out on the ground.

In summary, there is less money floating around – less money from investors and most notably, less disposable income in the hands of consumers.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate how this looks in the broader African context. Firstly, it means there is significantly less money knocking on the doors of new and innovative businesses that need investors.

Just recently, a payments processor headquartered in France lost 53% of its value – this kind of scenario has a knock-on effect across borders. However, there is a massive opportunity for fintechs that have bootstrapped themselves up in the uniquely African context.

What does this opportunity look like? For starters, there continues to be a great deal of disruption in the market.

Fintechs, mobile network operators (MNOs) and banks will approach the challenges and opportunities differently.

The ones that emerge from this phase in a strong position will be those that have thought about the economics of their proposition carefully, because the opportunity that presents itself in tough times is likely more scalable from an addressable market perspective.

On the other hand, those who react will focus on price. A war on price is a race to the bottom. On the contrary, the businesses and fintechs that get through the tough times will be those that focus on customer experience (CX).

It may be considered an intangible that sits between the bricks and cogs of a business, but it is crucial.

In difficult conditions, every business focuses on customers returning and using their products and services more frequently.

This isn’t easy, or everyone would be getting it right. Customers with less money in their pockets become more discerning, and in our experience are looking for a full basket of genuinely personalised customer experience where affordability is a crucial component, but most certainly not the only one.

We have learnt that speed, access, trust, convenience and safety in the payments space continue to be exceptionally important drivers in customers’ decision making on where to spend their hard-earned money.

At Mukuru we build very tight feedback loops with our customers and the feedback we get time and time again is speed, ease of use and safety is primary to how they develop their consideration set.

Looking ahead, regulation will continue to play an important role in how the industry evolves.

The FATF’s greylisting earlier this year has had a significant impact on businesses such as ours. We are under increasing scrutiny, not because anyone thinks we present any more risk than before, but because accountable institutions must demonstrate that they are confident money isn’t being laundered or used for nefarious purposes.

The result is that fintechs need to spend more time thinking and planning their products and must be tight in terms of the relationships they build with their customers.

Regulation is also expected to present immense opportunities, especially in Southern Africa.

South Africa, for example, lags other regions in the realm of mobile money. Legislation which is expected to come into play in 2025 will effectively form the framework within which e-money capabilities will be governed.

This moment will be a significant game changer for the region. The ability for more people to use e-wallets more frictionlessly will add immense value in the South African context and will fundamentally change the landscape of how money is stored, used and moved.

Looking toward this big disruption on our doorstep, businesses will approach the opportunity differently.

There will be those who throw mud at the wall and see what sticks, whereas we believe the real winners will be those that remain crisp and precise with their customer propositions. In this context, we believe partnerships will be vital for stability and growth, where partners enter mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships.

These can take many shapes and forms, such as payment providers bridging the gap between the informal and formal sectors solving a problem for fintechs who need ways to enable their customers to pay for goods and services, and where the payment provider gets access to millions of previously unreachable customers.

Digitisation and diversification will continue to be important trends in the coming months and years.

Take a moment to consider the power that MNOs and banks have traditionally exerted in the formal payments ecosystem – fintechs who are agile can enter into partnerships with other fintechs to offer similar one-stop solutions to those currently offered by the MNOs and banks. This trend will see an equalisation of influence.

Lastly, those that prioritise customer needs and wants will emerge stronger. There are two schools of thought on how you digitise money. The first is that you place a wallet in someone’s hands and encourage them to use it.

This would be the traditional approach. The Mukuru approach, and certainly the approach of the more agile players, is to find a way to help people with their payment and remittance needs and then graduate them towards using a digital store of value as they develop trust in the brand and the technology.

These are divergent approaches, but in difficult economic conditions our experience – which has seen us sign up 14-million customers across many countries – says it is better to listen to what customers want and then walk a journey with them as they become more sophisticated in their digital journeys.

Our approach is to solve a problem and then gradually build trust and extend the services and products we offer, as opposed to building a shiny product and waiting for customers to arrive.

[Featured image credit]

With a focus on security, scalability, and efficiency, DMI significantly reduces time to market for tech startups, small and midsize businesses, and enterprises, enabling them to concentrate on developing robust customer-centric applications to fuel their growth.

Launched in 2018, Deimos is at the forefront of scaling cloud solution technology for companies throughout Africa, including CBN, Kuda Bank, and Mukuru, propelling them toward digital transformation and success.

The launch of DMI, an automated solution, was built on decades of experience streamlining complex systems, tackling recurring product/system failures and the challenges of large-scale hybrid infrastructure.

The new innovative platform will reduce recovery times to less than 30 minutes compared to traditional solutions, ensuring enhanced resilience and efficiency for businesses.

With an onboarding process that requires no downtime during migration, tech startups and other businesses are able to maximise their cloud investments and stay competitive in an ever-evolving digital world.

The platform enters the booming Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) market, which is projected to grow to an estimated $481.8 billion by 2030, according to recent Allied Market Research, Fortune Business Insights.

Companies are rapidly adopting IaaS to avoid the purchasing of expensive new equipment, installing and implementation as well as building a team to use it.

IaaS helps where swift deployment and scalability are critical, a necessary hurdle for tech companies and digitised traditional banks.

DMI is designed to be a strategic partner allowing businesses to concentrate on their core activities without worrying about the intricacies of technology management.

DMI addresses critical pain points, offering a number of solutions to challenges:

Time to market: Accelerate infrastructure deployment reducing time from 12 months to under 3 months for swift market entry.

High availability: Ensure uninterrupted operations with redundancy, load-balanced deployment, and auto-scale groups.

Observability: Provides insights into system health with an observability platform, offering visual metrics for informed decision-making.

Financial operation: Optimises cloud costs in real-time, aligning resource use with business objectives.

Rapid recovery: Offering a quick recovery within 30 minutes of a catastrophic incident.

Security: Prioritises security without compromise, adopting and benchmarking against industry standards.

David Roos, Director of SRE at Deimos, stated;

“Deimos has collaborated with various companies for the past five years, tackling crucial infrastructure challenges. Our Managed Infrastructure Solution is crafted to evolve in accordance with industry best practices, offering businesses a flexible and state-of-the-art solution. DMI comprehensively addresses all facets of a well-architected cloud environment, ensuring our clients possess a sturdy foundation for their applications. We prioritise security, adhering to industry standards and benchmarks, showcasing the readiness of our product for the market.”

Deimos is cloud agnostic, ensuring clients receive the right solution for their unique environment, with partnerships that span Google, AWS, Azure, JumpCloud, GitLab, Cloudflare, and more.

This includes people who have an account, but do not transact online. In a KLA poll, 44% of respondents expressed concerns about the security of their personal and financial information while shopping online.

Security threats, including scams and phishing attacks, deter many South Africans from engaging in online shopping, as they feel safer in physical stores.

Leading African fintech company Mukuru has partnered with online payment gateway Payfast to launch a new payment service.

Available as a payment option on Payfast, Mukuru allows merchants to accept cash payments for online purchases.

Building a Digital Bridge to Financial Inclusion in SA’s Informal Sector

This also enables the massive, underserved market either earning cash or who don’t have access to digital payment instruments such as credit cards to access safe online purchasing.

When a consumer selects Mukuru as a payment option on the checkout page of the online store, they are sent a unique code.

They can take this code to any Mukuru pay point nationwide within 36 hours to pay for their purchase. As soon as the cash payment is made, Payfast informs the merchant, and the online order is processed.

With a wide range of cash-to-digital pay-in points across urban and rural areas in South Africa, Mukuru has a strong foothold in the cash economy. This covers customers who prefer to use cash online, to those employed in the informal sector and primarily deal in cash.

Conversely, Payfast, with its expansive network of over 80,000 merchants, is a champion in the digital economy, processing online payments seamlessly for a plethora of services and products.

With millions of people still preferring to transact in cash, the partnership between Payfast and Mukuru will bridge the digital divide by offering a safe and convenient way for cash users to participate in the digital economy.

According to Oliver O’Brien, Group Executive Head of Strategy and Business Development at Mukuru, this solution provides consumers with the ideal bridge between cash and digital.

“We have customers who trust us and are familiar with using our platform, making their transition to the digital economy seamless,” says O’Brien.

The competitive merchant fees and convenience of pay points for this on-demand product for customers makes it an accessible option for all.

“Millions of people in South Africa can now access a range of online stores that cover all categories from entertainment and fashion to groceries and appliances. Merchants can now tap into this sizable and underserved market to unlock more growth opportunities. The partnership with Payfast provides consumers with a safer and more reliable option than cash on delivery that has been fraught with challenges, especially in informal communities,” concludes O’Brien.

By emphasising the importance of people to operations, leaders look beyond profits. They must focus on creating value for their employees, their customers, and also the communities in which they operate.

At Mukuru, we have taken this to heart and renewed our focus on our people. Skills development is a significant pillar of this people strategy. It is not about hoarding ‘top talent’; instead, the company views all employees as gifted individuals.

Organisations can liken this to seeing their employees as different kinds of lightbulbs. Some are traditional bulbs, while others can be power-saving LEDs.

Of course, there are even those who are Christmas lights. It therefore comes down to recognising the unique talents of each employee and identifying those roles where they can best ‘shine’ to their own abilities.

Taking responsibility

To ensure a purpose-led ethos, employees should be encouraged to take responsibility for their personal and professional development. What has worked well for Mukuru is hackathons and collaboration with institutions developing young tech talent. This more integrated approach to development, focusing not just on creating promotability but about expanding existing knowledge and skills are enabling people to be their best selves at the organisation.

Underlying this people-centric ethos is the belief in a diverse workforce. A diverse skill set is not only a strength but a necessity for a company that wishes to be purpose-led.

With 56% female representation and employees ranging from high school graduates to PhD holders, Mukuru understands the unique perspectives and innovative ideas that such diversity brings.

Being a purpose-led organisation is about understanding that to lead is to serve. Leaders must work to connect business strategies with their implementation and bridge the gap between employees and the culture of the business. It is about becoming deeply involved in defining the company’s culture and values to set the tone for the rest of the workforce to follow.

External importance

Of course, any business who wants to become purpose-led must also look externally. It is about having a deep connection to the territories and communities in which they operate and serving as cultural ambassadors and enablers of positive change. This connection comes from decision-makers understanding that it is about more than just being a business. It comes down to being an enabler of dreams.

Being a purpose-led organisation is about celebrating relationships. Whether these are relationships with customers, within teams, or with the wider community, each one is personal.

At Mukuru, the pride employees take in their work and the pride they feel in wearing their branded gear are examples to the powerful bond they share with the company and the belief they have in its purpose.

Again, this is where a strong leadership team is essential in transforming into a purpose-led business. These are the individuals who must embody the company’s mission and values.

They must lead from the front and create a culture where all the employees feel connected to the organisation. It is more important than ever given how hybrid work has become normalised.

All of this comes down to putting people at the heart of operations. Organisations therefore need to value their people’s unique skills while also empowering employees to realise their full potential. This focus on people will enable purpose-led organisations like Mukuru to not only make a difference in a business environment, but also change the world for the better.