Most ATMs in the economically battered Southern African country of Zimbabwe, where inflation is at about 300%, no longer even give out cash. To address this, and other bigger economic issues, Zimbabwe’s central bank has said that it would introduce a new currency within two weeks to ease a cash shortage that have affected the ailing economy.
“We are going to be releasing the currency, coins and notes … to ensure we don’t starve this market. Within the next two weeks we will have the cash,” John Mangudya, Zimbabwe’s central bank governor said at a news conference in Harare.
Here Is All You Need To Know
Zimbabwe has been plagued by a shortage of cash for the past three years with most ATMs no longer doling out cash.
The latest currency intervention is part of a statement of Zimbabwe’s central bank’s monetary policy committee that was set up to find solutions to the country economic crisis.
“The committee felt there was a need to boost the domestic availability of cash in the economy for transactional purposes through a gradual increase in cash supply over the next six months,” he said. “This additional cash injection will be carried out through the non-inflationary exchange of real-time, gross settlement money for physical cash.”
The central bank said the new currency will be circulated together with the bond notes — a pseudo-currency that the country has been using for transactions.
“The new currency won’t have be called bond notes — just two dollars [or] five dollars.”
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, with inflation at more than 300% and is also plagued by a shortage of foreign currency, fuel, electricity and basic foods.
The country is also in the grips of a currency crisis as Zimbabwe ‘s local currency, which was, at one time, pegged at 1:1 with the US dollar is now trading at 1:20 with the greenback.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
For those doing business in Zimbabwe, this is a crucial time to tighten belts. The whole of the country is living daily without electricity for more than 18 hours and there are shortages of everything from bread to motor fuel.
To make it worse, Zimbabweans are now receiving food aid in cities for the first time and drought has necessitated the import of hundreds of thousands of tons of corn.
Here Is All You Need To Know
When Robert Mugabe was ousted after four decades in power in late 2017 his replacement, Emmerson Mnangagwa, promised economic regeneration and declared that Zimbabwe is “open for business.”
Things have however gone from bad to worse with the effects of rapidly expanding money supply through the sale of Treasury bills under Mugabe’s rule coming home to roost and this year’s outlawing of the US dollar in favor of a local quasi currency that can’t be traded outside the country causing panic.
“Zimbabwe is at a tipping point and if it falls over the edge it’s going to be quite a long way in coming back,” said Derek Matyszak, a Zimbabwe-based research consultant for South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies.
“The wheels are falling off. There is no way out of a Ponzi scheme other than a massive infusion of cash to pay off your creditors.”
The country with the world’s highest inflation rate after Venezuela also suspended annual consumer-price data for the next six months. The authorities need to collect comparable data since the introduction of the new currency in February.
That marked a return to 2009 when the country abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar in favor of the US dollar and other currencies after inflation surged to an estimated 500 billion percent.
If the more commonly used black-market exchange rate is used, Zimbabwe’s annual inflation is currently 558%, about three times the official rate, while Venezuela’s is 35,004%, according to Steve H. Hanke, a professor of applied economics at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Scrapping the official annual rate is “no real loss from an analytical perspective,” said Jee-A van der Linde, an economist at NKC African Economics in Paarl, South Africa
“These elevated inflation readings did little more than create panic and damage what little confidence was left.”
‘‘A quarter of the population has already emigrated, more may follow’’
A de-linking of the country’s quasi-currencies from parity with the US dollar in February and the re-imposition of the Zimbabwe dollar overnight in June has fueled depreciation with the currency officially trading at 9.28 to the dollar on Aug. 2.
The black-market rate was 10.8, according to Marketwatch.co.zw, a website run by analysts. While the government has argued that in the face of foreign-currency shortages it has no choice but to reintroduce its own currency, Hanke disagrees.
“The Achilles heel is the introduction of the new currency to the exclusion of the dollar,” he said.
“They have decided to go in the completely opposite direction and claimed it’s the best thing since sliced bread and it’s going to be an absolute disaster.”
While the cost of basic services has climbed 400% this year, pay rises have been around 10%, said Japhet Moyo, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which has 130,000 members.
“People are very angry” and even though a quarter of the population has already emigrated, more may follow, said Matyszak.
“The Zimbabwe I once loved has become a cemetery for my son’s future” said Ashley Randen, an unemployed single mother of a 12-year-old boy in Harare.
The Rate of Inflation Is So Bad That There Would Be No Statistics On Inflation In Zimbabwe Going Forward
Zimbabwe’s finance minister responded to the country’s worsening economic crisis last week by blacking out inflation statistics for the next six months, boosting the price of the little power that’s available five-fold and admitting what the International Monetary Fund told him in April: the economy will contract for the first time since 2008.
At the same time, he spoke of fiscal surpluses and relaxation in local ownership requirements for the key platinum industry.
Still, the decision evokes other countries in crisis. Venezuela halted publication of inflation data and while it periodically releases figures, it isn’t operating on a regular schedule. In 2013, Argentina was censured by the IMF for tampering with its data.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube tried to highlight the country’s first positive current-account balance in a decade as a sign of progress. Since his appointment last year, the government has sold only marginal amounts of Treasury bills.
And earlier this year, the Cambridge University-trained economics professor forecast that month-on-month inflation, which surged to 39.3% in June, would be close to zero by year-end.
The fundamental problem is that the government has failed to attract significant investment and hasn’t substantially changed the policies of the Mugabe era, said John Robertson, an independent economist in Harare, the capital.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
Zimbabwe is set to repeal the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act as the country moves to enhance the attractiveness of the minerals sector to foreign direct investment (FDI). This is remarkable because it is the first time in 11 years since foreign investors stopped owning 100% stakes in companies they set up in Zimbabwe. For the economy, this is by far a direct way of telling investors to come to do business in Zimbabwe.
Here Is The Deal
Under the new arrangement, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will be replaced by a more “business-friendly” Economic Empowerment Act, but in the interim, the Indigenisation Act has been amended to remove the critical diamond and platinum sub-sectors from the reserve list.
“Government, through the 2018 Finance Amendment Bill amended the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act and platinum and diamonds are now removed from the reserve list and shareholding will depend on negotiations with investors.
“Subsequently, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will be repealed and replaced by the Economic Empowerment Act, which will be consistent with the current thrust “Zimbabwe is Open for Business,’’ Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube, was quoted as saying while presenting the Mid-term Fiscal Policy Review statement and Supplementary Budget in Parliament yesterday.
The Indigenisation Act which is due for repeal requires foreign companies to give shareholdings of up to 51% in joint ventures to local partners.
The Implication Of The Intended Repeal
This repeal is expected to be revolutionary. First, it now means that local shareholding will depend on agreed terms by investors, while foreign shareholding can reach up to 100 percent.
Then again, it means that foreign investors can now work under an environment with less threat of breach of contract.
Such threats had a negative effect on the global investor community on Zimbabwe as a breach of contracts is anathema to investors.
The mining sector remains a key driver of Zimbabwe’s economic development, typically contributing circa 10 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and around 60 percent to exports.
And true to form, during the first half of the year, the sector contributed US$1.3 billion, about 68 percent of the total exports of US$1,9 billion during the period.
The scrapping of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act is one of the measures that is expected to provide impetus to the economic contribution of the sector.
Expect More Foreign Direct Investment In The Zimbabwe Mineral Sector
The Indigenisation Act has already been amended to remove the critical diamond and platinum sub-sectors from the reserve list. The rest of the minerals have also been removed from the list.
The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act worked to discourage and alienate much-needed FDI and investment as the way it was implemented threatened business.
Around 2013, the indigenization programme shook a lawfully and morally binding agreement between Zimbabwe’s largest platinum producer, Zimbabwe Platinum Holdings (Zimplats) and Government.
Comprehensive Strategy Already In Place for All Foreign Companies
The Zimbabwean government has over the past several months secured a number of mining investment deals, with the latest being a joint venture agreement between State-owned diamond miner, the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company and Russian firm, Alrosa.
The new diamonds agreement will see about US$12 million being invested in the exploration of diamond deposits over the next three years.
Minister Ncube yesterday said that Government will put in place a “comprehensive strategy” to see the coming into fruition of these deals.
“These investments will, however, take some time (up to 10 years of production) to give visible net benefits in view of long gestation periods for mining projects.
“Government will, therefore, in the second half of the year unveil a comprehensive strategy and roadmap towards a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023,” he said.
“The attainment of this milestone is not an event, but a process, which is well underway with concrete start-ups and expansion of projects in a number of minerals, which include platinum, gold, ferrochrome, coal and hydrocarbons, lithium, diamonds, iron ore, among others.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES THE OUTGOING ZIMBABWE AMB MAZEMO 0A. President Muhammadu Buhari usher in the outgoing Zimbabwe Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lovemore Mazemo during a farewell at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. AUGUST 1 2019
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES THE OUTGOING ZIMBABWE AMB MAZEMO 1. President Muhammadu Buhari Received the outgoing Zimbabwe Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lovemore Mazemo during a farewell at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. AUGUST 1 2019
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES THE OUTGOING ZIMBABWE AMB MAZEMO 3. President Muhammadu Buhari presents a gift to the outgoing Zimbabwe Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lovemore Mazemo during a farewell at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. AUGUST 1 2019
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES THE OUTGOING ZIMBABWE AMB MAZEMO 1. President Muhammadu Buhari Received the outgoing Zimbabwe Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lovemore Mazemo during a farewell at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. AUGUST 1 2019
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES THE OUTGOING ZIMBABWE AMB MAZEMO 3. President Muhammadu Buhari presents a gift to the outgoing Zimbabwe Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Lovemore Mazemo during a farewell at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. AUGUST 1 2019
SUNDAY AGHAEZE( HND Mass Comm, PGDBA) PERSONAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT International Photojournalist +234-803-3031520, 0805-2039160 email; suaghaeze@gmail.com aghaezesun@gmail.com
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.
African entrepreneurs are never leaving any stone unturned. Zimbabwe’s William Sachiti and his team at the Academy of Robotics have launched Europe’s first roadworthy self-driving delivery vehicle, “Kar-go” which aims to reduce the cost of last-mile delivery by as much as 90 percent.
In the first week of its launch, Kar-go has been hosted by the Duke of Richmond and praised by both the Duke and Zimbabwean dignitaries including Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo and Zimbabwe ambassador to the UK Christian Katsande.
A Look At Kar-go
Kar-go is a self-driving vehicle that works with the help of an app
Recipients of parcels can simply track their delivery and meet the vehicle at their preferred destination just like meeting a pre-booked taxi.
Recipients will then use the app to open the hatch of the vehicle to release their specific parcel.
Inside the vehicle, a patented package management system will sort and re-shuffle packages on the move.
Powered by Tesla batteries, Kar-go can drive at 60mph and cover around 120 miles before it needs re-charging — around the same distance as an average delivery driver covers daily.
Traveling at up to 60mph, the vehicle has been developed in collaboration with the UK’s vehicle licensing authority, the DVLA, to travel on the roads.
As part of the vehicle’s development, Sachiti “trained” the Kar-go technology to operate on roads in Zimbabwe.
Academy of Robotics founder and CEO, William Sachiti explains how the vehicle works:
“There are some great delivery robots out there, but most of them are designed to run on neat pavements or sidewalks of grid-like cities. We want Kar-go to be universally applicable, so we have trained our technology in a number of different environments and of course, for me, Zimbabwe was a natural choice.”
Kar-go has already attracted significant interest in investment from China, the UK, Australia, Germany and Switzerland and the Academy of Robotics is in discussions with a number of retailers and logistics companies with commercial trials for Kar-go on the roads in the UK planned in the next few months.
Sachiti, adds:
“We have had a number of very promising conversations with potential partners and investors and we are confident that Kar-go will be on the streets in a few months with a series of trials with high street retailers and logistics brands to follow. We are very grateful for the support we have received both in the UK and from the Zimbabwean community.”
An Emblem of the Future.
This electric, self-driving vehicle, Kar-go has since been selected by the team curating FOS Future Lab for the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) as an emblem of the future.
The Festival of Speed is an annual event dubbed motorsport’s ultimate garden party, as it takes place on lawns and paddocks of the Duke of Richmond’s Goodwood estate.
The Duke hosts motoring enthusiasts from around the world who flock to see the latest concept cars to classics.
Festival Of Speed Future Lab is the Duke of Richmond’s latest addition to the Festival of Speed and has become a centerpiece of the event.
The Man Behind This Unique Concept Vehicle is Zimbabwean-Brit, William Sachiti, From Harare.
Having exited his first start-up (123-registration) at 19, team leader William Sachiti (34) has since founded and exited 3 businesses including Clever Bins, a business he pitched aged 24 on the BBC Dragon’s Den show.
Before he turned his attention to AI and robotics his last business, MyCityVenue was acquired by Secret Escapes in 2015.
During his visit to the UK, Minister Moyo together with ambassador Katsande made time to meet Sachiti.
The dignitaries inspected the Kar-go vehicle at an exclusive reception and hosted by the Westbury Mayfair hotel in the prestigious Mayfair district where William was speaking at an event on the future of transport alongside leaders from the automotive industry.
At the reception, organized by Conrad Mwanza and the Zimbabwe Achiever Awards (ZAA) team, the party discussed the Kar-go technology and William and the team’s work to make the technology internationally applicable.
The reception was supported by British-Zimbabwean businessman Byron Fundira, an early investor in the Kar-go project, who was introduced to fellow ZAA winner by Conrad Mwanza.
Sachiti who moved to the UK aged 17 remains close to his family back in Zimbabwe and frequently returns.
The Academy of Robotics
The Academy of Robotics is a UK-headquartered self-drive car manufacturing company, founded by William Sachiti with a technical team of engineers, scientists, and researchers. The Academy specializes in creating technology to perform or simplify complex tasks.
Combining the best techniques from machine learning and mechatronics the Academy builds powerful self-adapting machines and task-specific artificially intelligent software.
Starting out of a university campus in Wales, the Academy of Robotics now has offices in London, Brighton, and Wales and has successfully filed several patents for its autonomous technology.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
“References to the currency of Zimbabwe shall, with effect from the 24th of June 2019 be construed as references to the form of legal tender and the electronic currency with which the term Zimbabwe dollar is.’’
The above statement is from the Zimbabwean government as the country begins a new journey to reshape its bad currency.
Henceforth, international and regional currencies such as the rand, US Dollar, Botswana Pula, and British Pound will no longer be acceptable in Zimbabwe as legal tender. Zimbabwean Finance Minister has gazetted mandatory and sole usage of the Zimbabwe Dollar for all local transactions.
‘It is hereby notified that the Minister of Finance … has made the following regulations; Zimbabwe dollar to be the sole currency for legal tender purposes,” reads a part of the Statutory Instrument issued today.
“With effect from the 24th June 2019, the British pound, United States Dollar, South Africa rand, Botswana Pula and any other foreign currency whatsoever shall no longer be legal tender alongside the Zimbabwe dollar in any transactions in Zimbabwe.”
The Statutory Instrument states that “references to the Zimbabwe dollar are coterminous with references to the following and to no other forms of legal tender or currency — (1) the bond notes and coins, 2.) the electronic currency that is to say the RTGS$”.
Zimbabwe has been using multiple currencies since 2009 when hyper-inflation ravaged the country’s local unit.
In 2016, the central bank of Zimbabwe introduced bond notes which traded at par with the US Dollar but have quickly been losing value.
Zimbabwe Is Poised To Have Its New Currency Now Or Never
Earlier this year, Zimbabwe introduced a new currency, the RTGS$ with President Emerson Mnangagwa and the Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, saying in the past few months that Zimbabwe was set to have a substantive currency of its own.
It also says the current bond notes and RTGS$ are at par with the Zimbabwe dollar. This has been viewed as an effective introduction of a new currency for Zimbabwe, which is currently battling a severe financial crisis.
Free For All
Companies such as Old Mutual have been accused by allies of President Mnangagwa for fueling informal market currency rates which have spiked out of control. Early Monday morning, the bond notes were trading around 1:10 against the US Dollar while the official interbank market rate is around 1:6.2.
Other listed companies in Zimbabwe have been facing accounting challenges and several have sought permission from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to delay financials following the introduction of the RTGS$ in February this year.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
LawBasket is, well, bringing law to the basket of what can be purchased online in Zimbabwe and across Africa. The startup was just founded in December of 2018 by a team of entrepreneurs that includes two lawyers. In what was supposed to be a huge thrill for the startup, it secured signups from legal professionals from more than 25 African countries on this launch.
The Law Startup Business Model Is Simple
The startup believes you can shop all legal services online the way you shop for clothing and other wares. The startup calls itself an online legal services marketplace for small businesses and startups, which bring together hundreds of lawyers in over 200 practice areas to deliver quality and affordable legal services online. The startup also offers client relationship management technology and payment processing services for lawyers.
The startup exists for both lawyers and clients.
The client can get to hire lawyers for their job from a wide range of lawyers on the platform, with expertise in various areas. They can either post a job and let lawyers bid based on expertise and client’s budget, or they can simply search for services, find lawyers and invite them to do their cases.
The startup is also giving legal clients the power to manage jobs from anywhere in the world, using their dashboard. With an integrated mailbox on the dashboard, the client can send emails to their lawyers quickly and follow up on their cases. They can also monitor proposal for posted jobs or manage their payments to lawyers for work done. Lawyers are only paid when the job is done. Through LawBasket Payments, the startup also simplifies the process of creating and managing bills for lawyers and provides a simple portal to process multi-jurisdictional payments for legal services.
For lawyers, they can search for cases that tickle their fancy, and send proposals to clients based on their expertise that suits the case, and at the same time search jobs at any time.
The startup is also giving lawyers a dashboard and a mailbox to manage their work from anywhere in the world.
According to the startup’s co-founder and head of marketing Nyasha Makamba in a recent interview, the platform presented a credible alternative to traditional law firms, providing a cost-certain solution to getting legal help for small businesses across Africa.
“In terms of the competition, and although the company is not a law firm, the firm broadly competes with traditional law firms, as well as other consultancy companies that provide technology-driven legal solutions. LawBasket is different from traditional law firms both in size and reach, as well as its approach to pricing legal services,” said Makamba.
How Law Basket Expects To Make Its Profit
Although LawBasket has been funded by its founders, Makamba said it had a “clear path to revenue generation and profitability in 12 months”, with revenue expected from commissions on LawBasket jobs, premium membership, and payment processing fees through LawBasket Payments.
Already, the startup has gained traction with over 153 lawyers from more than 25 African countries registering on its platform.
“It is almost 10 times bigger than the largest law firm in Zimbabwe, and is less than 40 lawyers away from surpassing the largest law firm by lawyer number in South Africa and Nigeria,” Makamba said.
Law Basket is also getting a hit from potential clients from more than 15 countries. Its client base is already over 106, ranging from small businesses and startups.
“With these demographics, this means that the legal services payment processing aspect of the business is operative in 25 countries in Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Senegal amongst other countries,” Makamba said.
“We plan to increase user numbers both on the client side and the lawyer side in the current markets, with plans to introduce more lawyers from the Francophone and Lusophone markets within 12 months.”
Globally, the legal technology industry is still growing, but the industry has quietly built up a number of emerging categories over the last few years. As of 2017, legal tech companies raised just $739M in aggregate funding since 2011. However, there is still a lot of opportunities to improve processes within the legal industry still attached to manual and paper-based processes.
The least popular areas in legal tech in 2018 are e-Billing and intellectual property, where machine learning is widely used. These areas are represented by three companies on each side. In 2018, only one of them has raised investments, a company which is developing an IP-solution.
On the other hand, e-Discovery is one of the most popular destinations in the whole legal tech industry. e-Discovery, mostly used in common law countries is an electronic service for finding relevant information about lawsuits and investigations. In common law countries, e-Discovery does provide great help to lawyers, saving them time and improving the accuracy of finding suitable court cases.
In 2016, $224 million was invested in the industry; in 2017, $233 million was invested. Investors were eyeing a fairly young business area and refrained from large transactions.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
Zimbabwean fintech startup, Payitup, has joined the league of the few startups in Africa to procure some of the largest funding.
The latest round of funding is around US$13 million from the UK-based Thawer Fund Management. The new round of funding is the largest ever by any startup in Zimbabwe. This would put the startup’s value at US$20 million . Although Payitup has secured seed funding in the past, it has faced challenges securing this larger round.
What Payitup Does
The startup which was launched in 2017, processes payments for DStv, broadband and airtime. The startup plans to commit the funds to system development and operations. The startup also has planned to recruit partners across various verticals, and stands to benefit from its relationship with Thawer Fund Management in more ways than just the obvious financial one.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Payitup Aretha Gonyora said:
“Our goal is to build a more connected financial life for the African people and beyond. Through our mobile and web applications our customers will be able to pay for various goods and services, access loans, investments, insurance and a wide range of financial products. We will be working towards financial inclusion for all and maximising on technology. A lot of people still do not have access to basic financial services, while the people with access to banking services are not fully capitalising on the power of technology.”
Most of the funded startups in Africa between January and June 2018 were in the above sectors
Payitup Expansion
The startup plans to remain focused on Zimbabwe in the meantime, but also plans to open its platform to customers in several southern African countries, and ultimately the rest of Africa in the next five years.
Its revenue model will be based on transaction and service fees, and premium subscriptions on selected goods and services, with Gonyora having faith in Payitup’s app-based approach in spite of challenges.
“Not everyone in Zimbabwe uses a smartphone, which has made USSD preferable over mobile applications. This combined with how expensive data has become in Zimbabwe means that our users’ access to the application may be a barrier. Fortunately, we saw this coming and have put in place favourable measures to buffer all our customers to have access to our services,” she said.
The startup also plans to commit a significant amount of the funds to grow the business in terms of awareness campaigns, rebates offered to customers, and other strategic products to gain traction and usage on the app.
This Round of Funding Is So Significant Because It Is So Difficult For Startups To Get Funding In Zimbabwe
According to Gonyora:
“We had been engaging our investor for over a year. The startup ecosystem in Zimbabwe is not that vibrant at the moment, and the current economic condition makes it difficult to get funding. There is still hope. What saw us through in the back and forth of the last 15 months was a combination of having a strong vision and finding people that believed in us.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh, a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
