Building an economically stronger rural Africa through affordable digital money services & financial education

We believe economic empowerment means having more income. We believe the path to more income for rural Africans starts with having investable savings.

SmartMoney promotes savings by providing rural African communities with a mobile-based savings and payment service that is safer, cheaper and more convenient than conventional mobile money services, banks or cash. Read more

Studies show savings empowers individuals and communities. Across rural Africa, communities lack understanding of basic financial management concepts such as savings, investing and cost minimization. Compounding their financial challenges, theft is prevalent and banks are practically non-existent. The lack of secure places to store cash increases vulnerability to theft and temptation to spend. This makes it difficult for rural people to save the money they work so hard to earn. Transporting cash over long distances to make payments is dangerous and incurs substantial costs further reducing the amount of money rural people are able to save.

OUR SERVICE

  • DIGITAL MONEY

    Think “ApplePay for the village.” SmartMoney establishes free and agentless village-wide digital money networks tailored to the diverse and interconnected savings and payment needs of farmers, households, merchants, schools, agriculture companies, NGOs and other rural institutions. Read more

  • FINANCIAL EDUCATION

    50% of registered SmartMoney customers use our digital money service for savings and payments. This compares to the worldwide average adoption rate for conventional mobile money of only 10%. SmartMoney achieves such unparalleled adoption with an innovative rural financial literacy training program that overcomes known barriers to scalable rural education including challenging geography, lack of customer mobility, limited customer aptitude and mistrust. Read more

  • CLOUD COMPUTING

    SmartMoney reaches the maximum number of rural customers with a proprietary cloud-based technology platform designed to work with the minimum customer technology available in rural communities – a low-cost GSM mobile phone. No smart phones or Internet access are required. Service is available across all local telecom networks. Read more

  • YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

    SmartMoney proudly employs, trains and mobilizes hundreds of rural African youth to promote to their community the benefits of savings and to train them how to use SmartMoney to increase savings and realize other benefits. Read more

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to economically empower rural communities through savings. We achieve this mission by delivering demand-oriented, affordable and accessible financial services to rural households, businesses, agriculture companies and other institutional stakeholders.

Our vision is to become Africa’s #1 rural financial service provider.

CUSTOMER BENEFITS

FARMERS, HOUSEHOLDS & INDIVIDUALS

SmartMoney improves livelihoods for rural farmers, households and individuals by increasing their ability to save money securely and conveniently on their mobile phones. SmartMoney also increases overall savings capacity by allowing rural farmers and households to pay for goods and services at local businesses with their mobile phone, thereby reducing the need to travel with cash to make payments. This substantially reduces transportation costs allowing more money to be allocated to savings.

SMALL BUSINESSES

SmartMoney reduces theft and violence for rural businesses by removing cash from their place of business and replacing it with safer electronic money. SmartMoney also increases profits for rural businesses by allowing them to buy supplies from local wholesalers with their mobile phone, thereby reducing transportation and opportunity costs. SmartMoney further increases profits by driving more foot-traffic to their business and by co-marketing their business to the local community.

LARGE INSTITUTIONS

SmartMoney increases efficiency, employee safety and transparency for large rural institutions such as agriculture companies by enabling them to pay their farmers for crops with electronic money instead of cash. SmartMoney also increases loyalty among farmers and other beneficiaries who appreciate the benefits of using SmartMoney’s electronic money service instead of cash.