Zambia the Digital Leap-Frogger

Author: Aston Njovu, Co-Founder | Product Manager – Zeepay Zambia

Do you remember the last time you walked to a shop in search of an airtime scratch card? The time you visited the post office to send money to a relative in the next town.

Today, I cannot remember the last time I saw an airtime recharge card. Thanks to great innovation and agility in technology as I now conveniently recharge airtime through my mobile wallet. Convenience has further been introduced as one can globally transact from the comfort of their home.

It is exciting and fills my heart with pride when I realize how Mother Zambia has witnessed immense transformation in the digital financial sector (DFS), leapfrogging herself as a frontier among the major players in the global digital sprint.

In 2009, 60.3% of adults did not have access to cell phones and a further study by the Zambia Information and Communication Authority (ZICTA) revealed that over 86% of Zambian adults did not have bank accounts then.

The leap is a function of several factors among others: investment in infrastructure (Base stations), availability of devices (Mobile phones), Agility of platforms as well as interoperability which is highly advocated and driven by the Bank of Zambia.

Zambia has experienced increased financial inclusion over a decade and half. Financial inclusion is the measure of how accessible and affordable financial services are to individuals and businesses in a given economy.

Disruption began in the early 2000 when Zambia Postal Services Corporation launched Swift cash (Now called Zampost Money). The Zampost innovation was disrupted in 2009 when ZOONA set precedence in convenient mobile financial services as they flooded the market with over 1,600 agent points across the country and processed over $1 billion by 2016.

As agility and iteration continued, the ecosystem realized customers sought transfer of funds across networks, Person to Business (P2B), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Person (B2P) and international remittance.

The need for agile, easily accessible and interoperable platforms was instrumental in birthing fintech’s, the likes of Zeepay Zambia and aggregators such as Kazang. Zeepay enables subscribers to create a Zeepay mobile wallet in less than five minutes from their existing mobile money or bank account.

The Bank of Zambia and stakeholders introduced the National Financial Switch (NFS) managed by the Zambia Electronic Clearing House (ZECHL). Digital financial service providers are further propelling growth and making life easy while simultaneously addressing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

It is safe to say that Zambia is a leapfrogger!