African Business Stories
African Business Stories is the go-to podcast for insights into the women shaping Africa’s business landscape. Africa is one of the world’s most promising frontiers for growth and innovation—and women are at the heart of this transformation.
Hosted by Akaego Okoye, this podcast spotlights female entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers, scaling businesses, and driving economic development across the continent. Through bold conversations, we explore funding, scaling strategies, digital transformation, and industry innovations—equipping you with insights, practical tools, and inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey.
When women win, economies thrive. These stories amplify success, challenge narratives, and create a blueprint for the next generation of female leaders in Africa and beyond.
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African Business Stories
Chilufya Mutale-Mwila: Co-Founder & CEO, eShandi - Building a Challenger Bank: Scaling Financial Solutions Across Africa
The path to financial freedom shouldn't be a privilege reserved for the few, but a right accessible to all. Chilufya Mutale-Mwila, co-founder and chief visionary officer of eShandi, is on a mission to make this vision a reality across Africa.
Growing up in Zambia, Chilu witnessed firsthand how access to financial services could transform families and communities. After joining a microfinance institution as an intern, she spent six years immersed in understanding the challenges faced by small business owners in underserved communities. This experience, followed by leadership roles expanding fintech operations across Southern Africa, revealed both the power of technology and the limitations of existing financial models.
The breakthrough came when Chilu realized that combining the efficiency of technology with the personalized approach of microfinance could create something revolutionary. eShandi (meaning "mine" in local language) was born as a pan-African challenger bank putting financial power directly into customers' hands. The company serves those often overlooked by traditional banks – market vendors, cross-border traders, and small-scale entrepreneurs who operate primarily in cash economies without formal financial records.
What makes eShandi's approach unique is their deep understanding of customer needs. Rather than forcing digital-only solutions on communities accustomed to cash, they've created accessible pathways to financial inclusion. Their impact is measured in tangible success stories – women expanding from one market stand to three, entrepreneurs purchasing their first delivery vehicle, or families buying their first refrigerator.
With operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Chilu has ambitious plans to expand eShandi's reach and services. The vision of "banking without borders" aims to connect African entrepreneurs across national boundaries, allowing seamless transactions and expanding opportunities. By adding insurance products, remittances, and new market entries, they're building a comprehensive ecosystem for financial empowerment.
Ready to discover how innovative financial solutions are transforming Africa's economic landscape? Listen now to learn how eShandi is bridging the $330 billion financing gap and creating pathways to prosperity for underserved communities across the continent.
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With more female entrepreneurs than any other region in the world. Women are at the heart of Africa's transformation. Welcome to African Business Stories, the show that amplifies the voices of female entrepreneurs shaping Africa's business landscape. I'm your host, ekego Koye. Here we explore bold ideas, strategies for scaling and the realities of building businesses that drive economic development. These stories will provide insights into Africa's business landscape, practical tools for growth and the inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share Neuro journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share On the show.
Speaker 1:Today I chat with Chilufia Mutale-Muila, co-founder and chief visionary officer at Echadi, a pan-African challenger bank, transforming financial access for small businesses and female entrepreneurs. With a background in microfinance and fintech, chilu has spent over a decade working to bridge the financial inclusion gap across Africa. We talk about her journey from Zambia to leading fintech expansion across multiple African markets, the challenges of navigating regulation, raising capital, and how Ashadi is redefining financial services for underserved communities. It's a conversation about innovation and the future of banking in Africa. Let's get into it. Hi, chilu, welcome to African Business Stories. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. I normally like to start from the very beginning. We like to say let's start from where it all began. And I know that you're from Zambia, which is in Southern Africa, and I wonder if you would share maybe some interesting facts that maybe our listeners don't know about Zambia. I've read quite a few and it's quite interesting, so it'd be good to hear from you some interesting facts about Zambia.
Speaker 2:I've read quite a few and it's quite interesting. So it'd be good to hear from you some interesting facts about Zambia. Zambia is known for its warm hospitality. It's noted to be one of the friendliest nations in the world. It's a beautiful and diverse country. We are home to the Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Locally, we call it the Mothiotunia, which means the smoke that thunders, and it's also one of the world. Locally we call it the Mosiotumia, which means the smoke that thunders, and it's also one of the most peaceful nations across Africa.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of growing up, I know you were born and raised in Zambia. Are there any childhood memories that have stayed with you over the years?
Speaker 2:One of my fondest memories was with my parents. Both my parents are deceased. My mother left when I was only barely seven and I was raised by single parents, so my fondest memories were with my mother and dad, and each time we'd receive visitors, especially our grandparents, our parents, would put us all in the middle and then we'd start dancing and they'd be clapping for us.
Speaker 2:So it was always a competition for us kids who would dance the most, the best, and I always loved the fact that they always really cheered for me and they were so happy with how I was dancing. I don't remember how I was dancing, but I was always giving money. So that's the only time you ever got money when visitors came and then you dance and then they'll give you, give you things. So those are the fondest memories of how, as a community, as a family, we come together with children. It's something that I don't see so often because we're all working, we're so busy, we're all living our own lives and we get to see each other when there's a funeral or there's a gathering, there's a wedding and things like that, but not those associations where grandparents, grandchildren, the parents all together. It's a different lifestyle that we live in today, I agree.
Speaker 1:So just moving on to university, I know that you studied natural resource management, is what I read. Yes, how did you come to study that? Your career is far from that, but we'll come to talk about that. But how did you come to study that?
Speaker 2:actually wanted to do computer science and but I didn't make the cut and so I went to the second choice and then in the second choice option, basically there wasn't any opportunity for me to sit into that class because this all the seats were taken up by people that have put it as the first choice, and so I ended up in a class that was basically studying physics and, oh my goodness, it was so off for me that I flunked. I was put on an extra program where I had to go home, sit out a semester and then come back, and that would mean me losing my bursary. I was sponsored by the government. I was on a government sponsorship and and so my lecture basically one of my lectures in physics said you did so well in my course. I don't see why you have to go home and then lose your bursary. How are you going to come back? How will your father pay for this? And that's how he pleaded with the dean of one of the other schools in natural resources to fit me and squeeze me in.
Speaker 2:And that's how I ended up doing natural resource management. I have no idea about what I studied, because I've never applied even any single part of it in my life since I graduated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in 2009. So then you finished your degree. And then what?
Speaker 2:How did you end up in microfinance, and so microfinance, I had stayed home for one year after graduating. I looked for multiple jobs, applied for many jobs, but the first interview that I got that job and it was in a microfinance company and I applied for a job as an intern. And that's how I really got to love what I really do. The beauty about the internship I was made to go in different markets, different parts of town to understand from people who were doing business what their pain points were, what problems they had and how could a financial institution help solve those problems. So we're carrying out a research to see how we can provide impact and provide financial support to small business owners and in interacting with people. That's where the passion really derives from, because the microfinance institution was previously an NGO and their mission and vision was clearly to alleviate poverty, but to access to easy and affordable financial services so that they can basically socially improve the lifestyle and the livelihoods of people.
Speaker 2:Because these are the people who are at the base of the pyramid segment, the mass market people who were not really literate, they couldn't sign on a document, they had no savings opportunities, they had no bank accounts, but these are people who were trading and these are people who had homes and children, and most of their children were trading with them because they could not afford to take them to school. And that's common in most markets, not just in Zambia. And so that's common in most markets, not just in Zambia. And so that's where really the passion derives from. It is just through those high touch interactions with people and seeing the real impact before my eyes. That's where it all came from.
Speaker 1:I had no academic micro finance background or financial services, but that's where it all started yeah, the learning is in the doing, isn't it? It really is in the doing, so. So how long did you spend in microfinance?
Speaker 2:so I was in microfinance for six years uh before evolving uh into a fintech, and this fintech was coming from eastern europe. They were trying to test their operations in Africa and because data is primarily fragmented in Africa, you need to use multiple sources of getting data for you to then basically provide a digital loan, for example, to a customer. It was very new in this market, so they headhunted me and gave me a CEO role to basically set up operations for them in Southern Africa.
Speaker 2:I set up operations for the entities in Zambia, zimbabwe, malawi, botswana, namibia and in Zambia. Basically, even getting a license was really hard because we had to explain to the regulator how we're going to operate, differently from a traditional microfinance institution. We didn't have fintech back in the day, and so just to get regulatory buy-in as well as understand what kind of licenses would be because our business model is different from your traditional microfinance model. This is a digital platform, technology-driven. How are you scoring customers? How is the customer approving and acknowledging the terms and conditions? How are they understanding? How are you providing financial literacy to this customer? How are you managing to make money and avoid the risk of default, especially that you're not collecting physical assets like the way a typical microfinance would just transform and evolve into that?
Speaker 1:So how did you personally make the transition from traditional microfinance banking to fintech?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it's the willingness and the passion. Once you have that keen interest and you see how you can make meaningful impact, it becomes easy to learn, transition and then know how to do it. So for me, I saw how successful microfinance models work for small business traders, informal the informal sector, particularly women and the youth in business. But what I saw that was missing was the efficiency and the time. So when people need working capital solutions, they need the money. Now I cannot come to you and ask for funds and then it takes me three to one month or two months for me to access those funds, and then it shouldn't take me six months for me to trade with you, for you to be able to give me a loan, because you want trading history with me if I'm depositing with you. So what people need is a solution that solves their pain point at that time, and that's how you can have buy-in and trust from the customer.
Speaker 2:So, with the consumer lending company, what they brought was efficiency and speed, and I realized that those were the common problems and the bottlenecks we had as a microfinance institution. So it was easy to assimilate technology as an enabler to then provide very quick and accessible financial solutions. And because technology is an enabler, I realized that it was very cost effective. Because you do need so many people to process application. It didn't need to take so much time and so many processes around. The tech could be end-to-end automated. With scalability, someone can instantly get financing, just like that that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So you took this company, they took you, they brought you in as ceo and you took this company across southern africa. So just walk us through maybe two examples of two, two CEO and you took this company across Southern Africa. So just walk us through maybe two examples of two countries that you took this company into and the differences you saw in market entry.
Speaker 2:So you find that for markets like Botswana, the regulators are different. So for a financial institution or a FinTech, basically there's a different unit, separate from the reserve bank or central bank, that manages, and so you find, like in other markets, it's way more developed and certain processes can be done online and it's very straightforward and within a specific time frame you get your feedback, whether it's an approval or it's not an approval. In other markets, like Zambia, it took a rather longer process and also because we were here.
Speaker 2:Basically we had the patience to have the back and forth discussions and understanding and providing that clarity. But for other markets that are more developed, where fintechs are already existing, the regulator is very confident of how they operate. They've created the frameworks around it that govern it and they bring it. It becomes much easier to provide you quick feedback and the licensing and the governance operates. They've created the frameworks around it that govern it and they bring sensitive. It becomes much easier to provide you quick feedback and the licensing and the governance around it because those structures already evolved and developed fantastic.
Speaker 1:So how long were you with the fintech?
Speaker 2:for I was with them for about two years so in total I spent about nine years in the corporate sector before taking a leap of faith as an entrepreneur A real leap of faith.
Speaker 1:I mean an unemployed person. I know right, I know. So what made you decide to make that leap of faith?
Speaker 2:I really struggled around impact when it came to the technology-driven business, because it really catered to people that were already financially included, because there was already data that was available to help the institution leverage that existing information that is verifiable to then provide instant financing.
Speaker 2:And then I missed out on the opportunity of where, with the traditional, microfinance, institutions were serving small business owners who didn't have formal financial services, that kind of access and financial history, credit history. Even with the credit reference bureaus, there's zero information about these kinds of customers, and this is because they borrow from your loan sharks, your informal traders, with high, exorbitant interest rates. There's no financial record about these transactions because they're mainly cash driven. And so what I then decided was what if we can have a mix of both, can't we have the best of both worlds and then serve the customers that really need the support, who don't really have the luxury of choice of picking three to four banks that they can go to and shop for pricing, but they basically need a financing partner that can grow with them in their business, and we felt Ishandi would be that partner by getting the best of both worlds. Both institutions were exceptionally good. One was highly driven by tech, but we needed to use that tech for the people that needed the financing the most. And that's the math Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you launched this business, it was called Premier Credit.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I've seen that there's been a rebrand to Eshandi. So what inspired the name change and what does Eshandi mean? We?
Speaker 2:started off back in 2019 as Premier Credit and we're providing many loans to small business owners in business, and as we then started understanding our customers better and trying to solve the customers problems, their pain points in their business journey, we realized that it's not only a loan that they required, and particularly for us as an institution to build up a history of their financial records. We needed the customers to transact and we needed to digitize their cash. So how do we drive a customer from a cash-driven society to a cashless society where they can trust a financial institution, they can pay their suppliers, they can make their purchases via mobile money or their wallet, and then that kind of financial linkage and that data can be used to score a customer and then understand their capacity to pay, without even the need for them to provide work goods from their home, from their shop or a house or vehicle and for most people who don't have, they basically won't be able to access. And so we then decided to then add additional financial products so that we provide a holistic one-stop shop where a customer can access a loan, can save, can invest, can send money, can pay and can get an insurance product like the Horsi Cash Cover. And that is what now Ishandi means, because we were creating an opportunity for a customer to attain financial freedom by becoming formally financially included and introduced into the banking realm.
Speaker 2:So we then put the bank, which is our wallet, into the customer's hands. They can easily access it, even with a feature phone. They can easily access it from where they are, without leaving their place of business. They can transact and digitize their financial records on our platform and be able to then become financially included, because we will then do the heavy lifting and put all that information and update that information even in the credit reference bureaus, so that it becomes easier for even other financial institutions to provide other services to them. So Ishandi really means the power is yours, in your hands, and you have the power to attain your own financial freedom and build your own financial future. Ishandi means mine, so the power is with you and not with the bank, but with you, the consumer.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. That's a real fantastic story and service that you're providing. What does your client base look like today?
Speaker 2:So most of our clients are in the informal sector. These are previously disadvantaged income groups from underserved communities, marginalized communities. These are customers who are in the informal sector that do not have registered businesses but are small-scale traders. Some of them are cross-border traders. Some of them are who you'd call marketeers, who are doing general trade in the markets and have small stores where they are basically operating as well as they also cater to the larger extent SMEs who have formally registered their businesses and have a few employees in their businesses but are unable to access the full extent of traditional bank services.
Speaker 1:You have a very broad customer base. What does repayment look like from these different groups of customers?
Speaker 2:So you will find that repayment from customers who have been historically disadvantaged is way better than people who have access to formal financial services from other financial institutions. The reason being is you find that when you're not really spoiled for choice and when you find a good product or service that works for you, the likelihood of you wanting to build a good working relationship with them because you can easily access future financing from them when you need it. You want to build a good record, and so those kinds of customers who always pay on time and most of them would prefer to make payments on a daily basis because they are generally trading, rather than paying once a month because they'll say I'll forget on that day, maybe my child is sick or I have a funeral or have a problem, I might forget. They don't have diary recorded on the phone where something happened, where they are reminded. They would rather say I'm going to save X amount every day. How much do I need to save up every day to accumulate to a monthly installment? So those are your best pairs because for them, they're looking at the financial partner.
Speaker 2:They started calling us a bank back in 2019, when we're not even a bank. Started calling us a bank back in 2019, when we're not even a bank. They called us a bank because they saw us as one-stop solution, when we were only providing a loan product and all they see is an institution that comes to them. We bring the financial service to them and we're solving their problems with them, and we understand them. I come from that same kind of background so I understand, and the employees we have also come from the same background. My father also was a customer from the first company that hired me, so he benefited from those services indirectly.
Speaker 2:I benefited as a child from that household because that small business owners are able to take their kids to school if their businesses are thriving. If their businesses are not thriving, the economic growth becomes stunted for a nation, especially in growing economies. And even when it comes to healthcare and food, you face all these challenges because, trust you me, a small business owner has to cover hospital bills from the money they make from that same business, has to cover food, rent, a roof over their head from that same small business. So imagine if it caught fire. They didn't have an insurance for that. Imagine if they were safe. Imagine if they didn't have working capital to grow Everyone. There's a whole chain, a ripple effect that gets affected just because of one small business, and I'm a product of a successful story like that.
Speaker 1:So how do you raise the money to be able to at least offer these loans and all the other products you offer to people?
Speaker 2:So raising funds has been a challenge for us, one of the constraints we faced. We were, fortunate enough, after we launched our operations in 2019, after 18 months of trading, we were able to raise a stage investor from an early stage investor. They are a gender-line focused fund and they gave us $650,000 in 2020, and they gave us follow-on investment of about $1.5 million and in total, they gave us close to $3 million in funding. And from that time back in 2020, we only further raised an additional $2.5 million from an impact lender, a Swiss fund. And then we then innovated by launching a peer-to-peer lending platform to the regulatory sandbox of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Speaker 2:Primarily, the sandbox was to help us provide working capital to small business owners, but using funds from the local market rather than raising more equity or debt from venture debt from VC. So we launched this platform that could easily allow us to connect people who had money and wanted to earn some passive income to people who were in need of financing, and we connected them to our platform. We had raised over $6 million through that platform and so in total, we raised about $11.8 million to date. We are currently raising a series of rounds of $15 million. We are looking for equity as well as debt and looking for partners to join us as we expand into other markets in South Africa, kenya, zimbabwe expand into other markets in South Africa, kenya, zimbabwe and where we are in Zambia.
Speaker 1:That is excellent. Congratulations, congratulations. That is excellent and I wish you all the best with that raise. I think you've done incredibly well and, yeah, and I wish you all the best with that raise in terms of your expansion, because I think that's really exciting. You've taken other people's companies across the continent and now you get to take a shandy as well. We can't have that conversation without talking about regulation and I wonder what it's been like in these markets. You've mentioned South Africa, kenya and the likes. What has it been like for you coming back now as a shandy and trying to navigate the regulatory environment on the continent?
Speaker 2:So our approach has always been working with regulators from the beginning, and so before we get into a market, we basically engage the regulator directly. I realized that it worked best from the previous company I worked for, where in the beginning we consulted with consulting firms audit firms to basically give us an overview of how it would work, how we would prepare our information and work with lawyers, but I realized the process took even a lot longer because they were also consulting with the regulator. So then I realized the best way to do it is actually work with the regulator from day one. You get it from the horse's mouth. They understand to you how it works, what is is allowable, what is not allowable, where you can get all the resource information you need, where the rules of engagement are placed and you can clearly see these, find these things on the central bank's website and then how you conduct and how to do business and what would be the key requirements regarding share capital, the key positions you would need to have, your corporate governance structures and all these other things that you'd need to do.
Speaker 2:So we basically worked with the regulators and being transparent right from the beginning really helps, because when they understand what you're trying to do, even though it might be different from the traditional way of doing it. It becomes easier for them to guide you because there have been other players maybe that could have come before you. So this is how we do it in all the markets where we go in we first work with the regulator and then we understand the market and we physically go there in person to do our own market assessment. As much as I love consultancy and how it adds a lot of value, but sometimes being there on the ground seeing it yourself also helps, and then the reports you get just validate what you've been able to see on the ground. Seeing it yourself also helps, and then the report you get just validates what you've been able to see on the market and give you a different lens and perspective of a global overview of what it essentially then looks like. But it's important to be hands-on.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree. So, apart from Zambia, which other country are you operating in today? South Africa and Zimbabwe. South Africa and Zimbabwe. So what does your client base in those countries look like compared to Zambia?
Speaker 2:So it's pretty much the same. Our mission really is the same. We are building a Pan-African Challenger Bank for small business owners and individuals in emerging markets, and so our goal really is to help people who are financially excluded, who may not access these kinds of services easily because of certain limitations that they may face, and those are the people we are really focusing on. We are really trying to bridge the $330 billion financing gap that is faced across the Sahara.
Speaker 1:For our listeners who don't know what a challenger bank is. Can you just explain that for their benefit?
Speaker 2:Okay. So a challenger bank is more of a hybrid, more like a mix of what a traditional bank looks like and what a digital bank looks like or a fintech. So it's a combination of a tech-enabled company which has high tech, and then your traditional bank which is high touch. So we are more high tech, high touch type of company where we really focus on the customer and we're in touch. Those lines of communications are open and we're not just a a digital place where you can't physically see us or you can't really find us.
Speaker 1:So we're in between so what does competition look like? Who are your competitors on the continent? Because we are building a hybrid model.
Speaker 2:we have more collaborators than competitors. Okay, you find that? On one end you have your traditional banks. We don't see them as competitors. We see them as enablers.
Speaker 2:Reason why is because the bank have their own segment that they focus on. We are focusing on those customers that the bank cannot reach, so we then can be supported by the bank to connect the customers we want to connect them to, and then the bank also has access through us, because it's more like their retail function to us to access the customers that are at the base of the pyramid segment. So that's where the enablement then comes in with. On the fintech side, for the neobank, the challenge is they have all the tech, but the issue is they're not able to serve the customers we serve. So how we collaborate with them is leverage on the existing tech that they've taken years to invest and build on and they've tested, but they then test and deploy on our customer base.
Speaker 2:So we see more collaborators rather than competitors. But if I do sense people building challenger banks, I would say you have entities like time bank in south africa, you have entities like the bank in nigeria, you have entities like Branch in East Africa who are building similar kind of models. But the impact, the go-to-market strategy and basically what they're trying to achieve is really the same and I don't think it's a saturated market where you can have one player that can really dominate this space. Africa is so big, so vast.
Speaker 1:You have your francophone.
Speaker 2:You have your anglophone all these. It's very difficult to encompass the whole of Africa.
Speaker 1:So who are your partners today? I love the idea of collaboration and being a bridge between traditional banking and fintechs, so who are the people you partner with today to deliver this service?
Speaker 2:So we partner with the mobile network operators through the mobile money platform. This is because this is your alternative banking method for people who are in the informal sector, and so this is typically what you see from your Airtel money Momo, that's with MTN, your M-Tesa or your other payment providers in other markets. So those are the typical people we partner with because they have KYC data on people who have access to their SIM cards, and then they also have information around their average spend or how they are transacting on their mobile money account, and it becomes easy to partner with them and provide our products on their menus to access the same customers and we collaborate.
Speaker 1:That's great. So in terms of challenges, this sounds so exciting and nothing ventured, nothing gained and nothing comes easy, and I just wondered what kinds of challenges you faced in building this business over the. You started just pre-COVID. We went through the COVID years and you've grown and entered new markets, but are there any significant challenges? And if you've overcome some of them, it will be a great learning for some of our listeners. What kind of challenges have you faced in building in this market?
Speaker 2:I think in the early stages, one of our biggest challenges was building the right kind of team that could work in a startup. So the market I'm coming from we didn't have so many emerging startups. We only had established corporate institutions. So the mindset really around working for a startup is very different from a mindset of where, when you're going into a corporate institution, all these structures are in place, your salaries are guaranteed, you don't worry about if you're getting paid, if you haven't raised money.
Speaker 2:Your founder is looking for money, raising money, pitching here and there, the thing where it's just your normal day-to-day job description For what we were doing and who believed in the vision, believing in something they really could not see, but really believing in the person who's driving this and who is trying to visualize something for you that you can't see. But you believe that this is what we can achieve and this is where we'll get. It's really difficult to find people that can stay with you for five years and trust that their career is safe and they're not wasting their time. So building the right kind of team, particularly when you're bootstrapping and bootstrapping really is a term to describe a founder who's basically operating their business with their own resources and without external funding.
Speaker 2:And so when we were bootstrapping, we were not getting paid as founders and it was a challenge to run around and see where is money coming from here and there and the best place we got revenue from and the money we needed for the business was from our customers. But then building that team that could see that this is where we are going and these are the baby steps we need to take, and then these are the leaps we need to take when we need to take them. This is how we loosen up on our appetite for risk and this is how we tighten up when we see things changing, because every amount of money, every dollar, counts. So you need to be very confident of how your movements are working and people to understand how we track metrics business metrics very closely. So our biggest challenge was getting the right team in place and secondly, it was about funding for the travel, and that's how we needed to pivot and look at alternative ways of raising, and we did that through peer-to-peer lending, where we raised more than we did with meeting funding.
Speaker 1:So are there new markets you're considering and maybe perhaps some new services you're considering?
Speaker 2:Yes, we are looking at adding insurance products, and not just health for healthcare, but also for protection of business against fires, because those are the common incidents that happen in market areas Fires where someone's business is completely wiped out and they have to start from scratch. How do we protect people's businesses, goods in transit for cross border traders, and then also how?
Speaker 2:do we then support small businesses in being in remittances. How do we create an ecosystem where someone can have an Ashanti app in South Africa, can have an Ashanti app in East Africa but can still move money In Zimbabwe? I'm an Uber driver in South Africa but I'm from Zimbabwe. How do I send money back home? At very little, to no cost, because?
Speaker 2:I'm using the same platform. It should be free if it's within the same platform and how do you create that kind of interoperability and make it very affordable? That's what we're looking at in the future and also we are really keen on getting into the Francophone region in the future.
Speaker 1:In terms of the future of fintech in Africa. Is there anything that excites you about the future of fintech, and are there things that maybe other entrepreneurs or investors should pay attention to?
Speaker 2:not to say this because I'm raising money, but africa is the future.
Speaker 2:That's right and basically the market opportunity and the growth opportunity is really high and this is why global companies similarly to what Stripe did by acquiring Paystack in Nigeria, and many other global companies trying to acquire businesses here in Africa and investing in businesses in Africa is because they see where the future is going. This is where you have your largest volume, and what I love is the opportunity that now institutions in collaboration with banks, as well as the regulators across the continent, are trying to create one centralized financial switch that will really increase interoperability and allow for entities to now trade. What we should have for the future is banking without borders. As long as I have an account from here, I should be able to transact with you. It shouldn't be blocked because of borders and for me, as an institution, to have to register myself in each and every country just to serve my customer, who's serving multiple markets. So the future really is banking without borders, and we are getting there through these new infrastructures that are being made.
Speaker 1:So I agree, the future is banking without borders. We started this conversation and I asked about why you decided to set up your own company and do the work that you do, and you spoke about impact. I normally end the conversation by asking my guests to reflect and to give advice. So, in terms of reflecting and thinking about the impact that you want to have, or you want Ashadi to have, on the continent, what do you hope that Ashadi would contribute to growth in Africa?
Speaker 2:My dream is for everyone to be financially included. My dream is for everyone to have an opportunity that they can create their own financial future because they all have access. It should be a right and not a privilege. Where we are today, it's a privilege to be able to go to school. It's a privilege, but it should be a right. So for me to be able to go to school, I need access to financial resources that enable me to go to school those fundamental building blocks of what children need.
Speaker 2:It all comes down to one same thing money. For as long as the people taking care of you when you're young do not have access to that opportunity, your growth plan is really limited as a child in where you go and how far you go. But my dream is for everyone to have the right to access to finance for them to create their own opportunities and build their own wealth. Everyone should have an opportunity to build wealth. It shouldn't end at the dream of getting a job, but the dream is how do I create wealth for the next generation and for the fourth generation to come? Everyone should believe that there's that possibility and everyone should see that possibility can happen.
Speaker 1:And, based on all that you've done over the last six or so years, is there something that you're most proud of?
Speaker 2:I would say I'm most proud of the fact that we've been able to help a lot of women in business, men in business. When we see customers who we've served move from having one stand to having three stands, from having absolutely no fridge in their home to buying a fridge in their home, it may look so small but those are big wins for our customer. And when they're proudly telling you these stories, those are successes for us, because we directly see the impact of people being telling us now, today, oh, now I'm able to send my goods across town or to one. When we see someone proudly. I was once proud when we were taking an investor to see one customer and they were so proud by showing them my stand was this big and now I've extended it like this I built this myself.
Speaker 2:Have you seen that car outside? I bought this car myself. This was a woman speaking so proudly of the things she accomplished as a woman, but it's because of the opportunity that was created for her that she was able to build her own financial future herself. We did not do that for her, she did it herself. All we did was create the opportunity. So what I'm just proud of is creating the opportunity for others to also build for themselves Fantastic, Fantastic and Chilu.
Speaker 1:If you could give one piece of advice to other women who are building businesses across Africa, what advice would that be?
Speaker 2:It would be never to give up on your dream and really focus on the things that matter the most. There are so many things we'll face in our journeys that can divert us from our core vision and focus, but when you focus on the things that matter the most, you always stay grounded and true to yourself and you end up always doing the right thing and you eventually get to where you need to be. Don't chase the wind, just stay true to your path and to your dream. But number one never give up, never give up, never give up, no matter what, never give up.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. So how can people learn more about Eshadi and how can they support the work that you're doing?
Speaker 2:I would encourage people to look us up through our website at wwweshadicom and also reach out to the contact information that is provided. We're happy to listen to anyone and share more of our story, what we are doing and our journey ahead, and how we can collaborate and partner with other ecosystem enablers that also are focusing on the mission and to champion financial inclusion across Africa.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. This has been such a great conversation. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. If you're not already subscribed, please do so on Apple, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review so we know how we're doing. I'm Akego Okoye and you have been listening to African Business Stories.