Cellulant Zambia - Afrikan Heroes

Cellulant Partners Lusaka Chamber of Commerce to Digitize Payments for Businesses in Lusaka

October 14, 2022

Cellulant’s Country Manager in Zambia, Gilbert Lungu

Cellulant Zambia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lusaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to offer digital payments to its member businesses. Lusaka Chamber of Commerce members can now readily access payment solutions that will enable them to accept payments from their customers’ preferred mobile money wallet.

Cellulant’s payment platform, Tingg, which integrates over 290 banks across Africa, is a one-stop payments aggregator for Multinational Corporations and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), hence the significance of this partnership.

Tingg’s uptake across Africa is in high gear, with products like In-store payments which leverage mobile money and mobile banking as payment methods through USSD and QR Codes. This streamlines business administration processes for merchants while expanding the range of payment options they can offer customers, ensuring maximum choice and flexibility offline and online.

The Minister of Technology and Science, Felix Mutati stated that “Cellulant has bridged the digital payment gap and is delighted to note that businesses are migrating to technologies that will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in payment acceptance.” In a speech read on his behalf by his Acting Permanent Secretary Mrs Chikatizyo Musonda he further urged businesses to be part of the shift to cashless financial transactions that will work for the greater good of the economy.

Cellulant’s Country Manager in Zambia, Gilbert Lungu also noted that “Since Tingg went live, we have over 700 stores across the country who can receive mobile money payments as well as view and reconcile all transactions via a single platform. The unison of mobile payments negates the need to sign up to multiple payments providers, and we will soon offer banks as an option, giving the consumers more choices from the comfort of their mobile phone.”

As part of its mandate to be the ‘voice of businesses’, the LCCI has noted with dismay the growing fragmentation in digital payments as most businesses offer mostly card-swiping options and rarely have a platform for mobile payments other than peer-to-peer options. As a private sector-driven organisation, ensuring that business is done with the utmost convenience to the customers is of great importance as highlighted by the LCCI President, Mr Alexander Lawrence said, “We are now in the digital era and businesses must rise to the occasion by offering more digital payment acceptance points as this will not only reduce cash handling but further economic gains through the reduction of leakages. Paying with Tingg provides all businesses full control over their finances whilst enabling them to make better business decisions.”

There is growing evidence that the Zambian market is ready for intuitive payment technologies that ease doing business. According to the 2022 Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority(ZICTA) Annual Market Report, the number of active mobile money subscribers increased from 8.6 million in 2020 to 9.9 million subscribers in 2021. Similarly, the volume of mobile money transactions increased from 746.5 million to 843.1 million transactions representing an annual increase of 11.7% while the number of transactions grew from ZMW 105.6 billion in 2020 to ZMW 169.4 billion in 2021 representing a growth rate of 60%.

This partnership will enable LCCI members to access digital financial solutions to take advantage of these opportunities which herald the acceleration of economic growth for businesses through payments.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Cellulant Partners Five Water Utility Companies in Zambia

June 25, 2022

Cellulant Zambia announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water, and Western Water.

This partnership will allow customers in the country to pay their water bills with their preferred mobile money and selected bank accounts (Standard Chartered Bank, Zambia National Building Society, and Natsave).

Country Manager for Cellulant Zambia, Gilbert Lungu

In remote areas, customers travel long distances to pay for their water bills. With the partnership, customers will be able to pay for their water bills through Tingg. Since first partnering with Mulonga and Nkana Water 3 years ago, all the water utilities in Northern Zambia have jumped on board and experienced exponential growth in digital payments. Additionally, Tingg by Cellulant processed over K11 million ($648 798.36) since going live.

Digitising the payment collection process unlocks access to efficient and more affordable water services for thousands of Zambians by creating a virtuous cycle of payment and service improvement. Ultimately, when customers are enabled to pay easily and have a good customer experience, their willingness to pay on time and consistently increase substantially. In turn, the water utility companies experience reduced costs in collections and increased revenue, increasing their ability to upgrade services, invest in innovation and extend their network.

“Through the years, we have built a payments platform that seeks to solve issues faced by businesses and their consumers. Partnerships such as this are critical in ensuring that we deliver the best possible digital payment service in Zambia. The vertical of water utility companies is particularly critical because of the need to improve the collection efficiency for thousands of Zambians,” the Country Manager for Cellulant Zambia, Gilbert Lungu said, speaking at the partnership launch event in Kitwe.

“We believe in technology’s power to unlock opportunities, and that is why we are here today to provide collection efficiency for all the water utilities. Honourable Minister, we know that your Government has spoken of the role technology will play in growing the Zambian economy and Cellulant as a technology player in this space. We are ready to drive this growth,” he added.

Speaking at the same event, Minister of Water Development and Sanitation, Mike Mposha, commended Cellulant for bridging the digital payment gap and was delighted to note that the water utility companies are migrating to technologies that will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in revenue collection.

“I wish to take this opportunity to urge the utility companies to utilize technologies and innovations that will bring about revenue generation efficiency and help improve the financial viability of water utility companies,” Mposha said.

“Revenue collection has been a challenge, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic; therefore, digital services provide a solution for decongesting payment points for water utility companies whilst arresting the spread of Covid-19,” he said.

He closed by commending water supply companies to putting their customers’ needs first by ensuring they pay conveniently from mobile money.

Over 300 000 water utility customers are set to benefit from the partnership and can now easily pay their water bills on Tingg by dialling *265#. Tingg is a payment gateway provided by Cellulant that gives businesses and their end-consumers a single unified payment experience.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Cellulant Introduces Tingg Digital Payments Platform in Zambia

July 11, 2021

Following efforts to foster growth for both the formal and informal sector in Zambia, Pan-African Payments business Cellulant rolls out Tingg, a digital payments platform enabling businesses and their consumers to accept and make payments seamlessly

This became necessary as payment technology over the years has completely transformed how retailers operate. Thirty years ago, most retailers across Africa did not accept credit cards, and mobile money was still an idea. Over the past decade and a half, mobile money has transformed how African consumers access and use their money to pay for goods and services. But the most significant shift in the use of digital payments has happened in the last year, where the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitisation for the retail sector.

Unfortunately, retail businesses in major urban areas that were not equipped to handle card or mobile payments found it challenging to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. In Zambia, where multiple mobile money players are fighting for market share, merchants and retailers have set up fragmented payment processes, contracts and accounts to accept all forms of payments. In turn, this means that the retailer is managing varying user payment experiences to collect from multiple mobile money networks and processes for settlement and reversals daily.

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Cellulant, a Pan-African payments company, is addressing this fragmentation in payment processing for retailers by rolling out Tingg, a digital payments platform enabling businesses across Zambia to accept payments from their customers seamlessly.

“Today, roughly 50% of retail customers request to pay for their purchases using digital payment options. Therefore, for all businesses – small, medium, large- digitising their payments has moved from a good to have to a game-changer in what has become the new norm. However, this demand presents several challenges for most merchants who might not always support the customer’s preferred payment method, resulting in merchants having to enable multiple solutions to support multiple wallets. We want to partner with these businesses and makes it easy for them to conveniently and affordably accept payments with fewer hoops,” says Gilbert Lungu, Country Manager for Cellulant Zambia.

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A single integrated solution, Tingg offers simplified payment tools and processes for a merchant to manage their payments. As a result, businesses can allow their customers to make payments for goods and services using locally relevant payment options.

“In rolling out this digital payments platform, we are slowly removing the dependency on cash and POS terminals. Retailers can accept as many payment methods as possible whilst simplifying the collections and settlement processes. For retail customers, the solution provides a standard and unified payment experience regardless of the payment method.,” add Mr Lungu.

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More than 70% of businesses in Africa are small or medium businesses and remain a backbone for economic growth for many other countries in Africa. Yet, 90% of these businesses collect payments in cash and lack digital payments options that cater to their customers. Cellulant aims to leverage its digital payments platform to boost growth for the retail sector by making it easy for businesses to conveniently and affordably accept payments and address the complex needs of managing payments

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry