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.
