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MI-WALLET, the future of cardless payments in Africa

Mi-Wallet is a digital wallet and contact-less mobile payment application, once a user creates an account with Mi-Wallet will be able to connect several mobile money and bank accounts into the application. Mi-Wallet is powered with Near Field Communication(NFC) and Quick Response(QR) making it a " Tap and Pay" app using smartphone, this means a user will be able to pay in a store by simply waving their smartphone on a merchant device acting as point of sale(POS), a smartphone in this case will behave like a smartcard hence achieving cardless transaction. Users are only required to use a fingerprint or PIN to authorize transaction(Payment) hence making the process faster, secure and more convenient. users will also be able to send and receive money, pay bills and withdraw instantly. 

MIWALLET will support all local banks and mobile wallets, being the first contact-less payment application in Malawi besides being the cheapest digital wallet, it will safeguard people from contracting Covid19 when buying things in shops. MIWALLET will also be the first service to offer customers an advantage to purchase electricity and water units on credit to help them have power and water throughout even when they don't have money.

According to statista.com there are over two million smartphone users in Malawi and every year users increase by 8% giving us enough room to grow in the market. MIWALLET app will support all network technologies (2G/edge, 3G, 4G and 5G) ,it will also have support to old smartphones without NFC (wireless) technology to ensure that everyone can access it regardless of their smartphone model.

A functional prototype of MIWALLET app has already been developed with first level testing being done on virtual bank  accounts as we are preparing for a possible partnership with atleast one local bank for a start. The banks we have aproached have shown great interest in the innovation giving us a hope to roll out the first official version of the product by early 2021 or late 2020.

MIWALLET will generate revenue through every Tap to Pay transaction on POS with a fee of less than $0.20. MIWALLET is also taking advantage of electricity and water units purchased on credit by deducting a fee of less than $0.20 during repayment.

MIWALLET will seek to raise seed capital from interested investors (angel investors & VCs) 

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

1.Provide a contactless mobile  payment for everyone for the first time in Malawi and neighboring countries

2.Provide cheapest digital wallet services than all competitors to help people save more when using digital services.

3.Be the first platform to provide electricity and water units purchase on credit so that people can have power and water throughout

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

With high concern of fast spreading covid19 people are forever looking for ways to stay safe as much as possible and at the same time they would life to go on. in Malawi we still use cash to buy things and according to Reserve Bank of Malawi they had figured out that exchange of cash is one major way of spreading covid19. since then they have been trying to sensitise the communities to be washing hands when ever they are handling money.  it is no brainer that there is a need of banks and mobile wallets to step up and provide means to their customers to handle transactions safely but the data has shown the methods available are not convinient at the same time costly and this is forcing people to keep using  cash when trading instead.

Right now shop owners are trying their best to protect their employees and they wish there was a proper way to handle payments other than cash.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

there is a need to introduce a solution that is fast and convenient to help people make payments in shops contactlessly. Using the smartphone instead of  swiping bank cards will increase security and flexibility. the solution should be friendly to accomodate everyone thus providing an app that will allow people connect their several local bank accounts in it because people are not farmiliar with visa cards and other exotic payment  systems that are not available in semi-urban areas. the app will relieve shop owners and their employees since there will be less handling of cash. This digital wallet will be 10x cheaper than available mobile wallets to ensure everyone can use the service without worrying about unnecessary costs of using it.

Share your story (your narrative)

Lovemore is worried about going out because he is very concerned about getting or spreading covid19. but at home there are no groceries and Lovemore would like to go to a supermarket to do some grovery shopping. Lovemore is keeping some money at a Local bank and would like to use it for shopping. Lovemore is worried about using cash after learning from Central bank that cash is spreading covid19 at a very fast pace. Lovemore would love to pay through a digital platform of the bank but not so many shops do support the services of the bank. Lovemore decides to download MIWALLET app which supports every local bank and widely used in many shops across the country ,both big and small. Lovemore finally manages to sign up with MIWALLET app and connects it with the Local Bank. Lovemore is now happy because he will pay by simply waving his mobile phone on a POS in the shop instead of cash. Lovemore is excited to learn that MIWALLET app is 10x cheaper than all mobile wallets available and he has put shop owners and himself safe

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

MIWALLET will extend to neighboring countries to support international transfers and contactless payments across the boarders. MIWALLET is not yet released but the idea has been embraced by relevant stakeholders and banks inclusive. for the past months we have been doing  research on how ready the people are to embrace the new technology and from our research report it has shown 80% of people are ready to use the application considering the cost effectiveness of the service compared to the existing wallets from MNOs. Our project timeframe shows that MIWALLET app will be available for download by november 2020

edited on Jul 24, 2020 by Ronnex Wataya
Public (20)
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Marabe Ditshego Jul 18, 2020

Hi Ronnex,
I trust you are well.

Let me congratulate you on your idea. Mobile money solutions highly favoured by investors, so I certainly hope your idea will one day turn to a prototype

I wish to share a few remarks for your consideration.
1. Will you be the one responsible for supply point of sale devices to merchants or do they already have this technology in place?
2. Consider mentioning internet and smart phone penetration stats to give us an idea of the potential market in Malawai.
3. Will your solution also accommodate people without 3G/4G/5G compatible “smart” phones?
4. Consider mentioning how MI-Wallet will be both funded and how you will make money (business model).
5. Consider amending your objectives into SMART objectives to reflect how you intend to move from idea to prototype. Visit https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/project-objectives/ for a detailed explanation

Ronnex Wataya Jul 18, 2020

thank you. i will consider updating that, and there is already a prototype , the app will not demand massive internet a 2G mobile smartphone should be able to handle some processes. the Tap to pay transaction does not require internet from the customer side,the POS handles that and all POS devices will be supplied by MIWALLET

Marabe Ditshego Jul 19, 2020

Well noted. All the best going forward.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 19, 2020

i apreciate. remember us with a vote :)

Joseph Bozimo Jul 20, 2020

Hello sir, thanks for your brilliant
concept, as regards the above this question "Will your solution also accommodate people without 3G/4G/5G compatible “smart” phones?

I will suggest you you inculcate Unstructured Supplimentry Service Data UDSD code to your solution.

My question is as follows.
1) What is the percentage margin of people using smartphone in Malawi?

2)Do you have constant power supply (Application drains battery life)

3) Who are your target audience.

4) Those in rural areas how can they use this app. Most especially there not tech savvy

5) when you buy items online via this app who is to take care of the deliveries?

Ronnex Wataya Jul 20, 2020

Thanks Joseph for asking. in Malawi there is good penetration of mobile smartphones and we believe this creates enough room to introduce a new technology to handle contactless payments . In future we are going to plan how we are going accomodate USSD into system as for now our main focus is to release a system that can assist with contactless transactions "Tap to Pay " to be specific. we are targeting urban community because we have a very high population in the urban area and very congested and this is why covid19 is spreading fast in these areas than rural hence the urgent need to introduce solutions to tackle the problem. Nevertheless we are looking forward to see everyone having an access to it.
Thank you

MD MOHID ISLAM Jul 19, 2020

Greetings and best wishes for your submission
Assuming your Mobile Money is of accessible on a global scale
1. Can you please enlighten me about your MI-Wallets superiority or Advantages over Cards/Paypal/Apple Pay on The following Situation:
A person Named ”Mr. XYZ” intends to buy Online and surfing Amazon US site. Why he must thinks of your ones leaving others?

2. Is it independent enough to be accommodating on any sort of handsets, OS, Versions ?

Users tagged:

Ronnex Wataya Jul 19, 2020

Thank you Muhid! . MIWALLET advantages over cards is it's ability to allow a user to connect their several accounts into on wallet at no cost. this means user's won't need to use their many financial /bank cards independently anymore. apple pay penetration in the world is below 1% because it has little to no support for other countries and this is giving advantage to apps like MIWALLET to fill the gap. sending and recieving money through MIWALLET regardless of the amount it is 10x cheaper than paypal (less than $0.20 per transaction).
On the online shopping, MIWALLET do not support that the current work is to implement a Tap to Pay system, money transfer and bill payments system. nevertheless we shall consider in future to develop an API that can payments for online shoppers.
MIWALLET will run on android, IOS windows platform and supporting a wide range of devices

Tafadzwa Chikwereti Jul 19, 2020

A grwat idea
I have reservations in security vulnerabilities
Care to clarify security measures

James Kiruri Jul 20, 2020

Hi Ronnex, is this linked to mobile money services from a telco?

Ronnex Wataya Jul 20, 2020

it will be linked yes

James Kiruri Jul 21, 2020

Hi Ronnex, kindly review my idea Teleeza as will need to refine it. Kindly review in light of our plan to roll out to the rest of Africa and how it would be received in Malawi for instance.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 21, 2020

Let me do so

Aron Shoker Jul 23, 2020

Hi

This is an intriguing idea!

However.

How do you differentiate yourself from the lines of PayPal or ape pay?

Thanks.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 23, 2020

Thanks for the comment , a good question indeed. so our main focus is the Tap to pay , allowing users access electricity on credit. currently we don't have these services in Malawi and SADc region as whole. putting in place a contactless payment method will reduce spread of covid 19. as for paypal we do understand it is an online payment system for people who are advanced hence lacks financial inclusion

Segun Oke Jul 23, 2020

Hello Ronnex, Greetings and congratulations on your idea. I am particularly concern about the risk involve in this. just like any e- transactions, there are potential risk, was your prototype able to identify some of these risk like hacking onthe app and generating fake codes? also, you might want to consider, focusing on people in semi-urban communities in Malawi, i feel they need it more?

finally, Do you have any solution for people without smart phones. Not everybody have access to smart phone. you might want to consider this

Ronnex Wataya Jul 23, 2020

Hi segun, Wireless transactions are the most secure so far when we compare to current systems in place that is why we have opted the use of such technology. one of the purpose is to improve security when doing transactions. we have targeted people from semi-urban because this is where the market is and we believe in future most people will have access to a smartphone including a significant population in rural areas. thank you for taking effort to review my idea

(Account removed) Jul 23, 2020

MiWallet is providing a creative way of safeguarding the bank card holders from the incessant card loss or stolen that may lead to unauthorized debit. Personally, this is a unique solution that will transform the digital financial services among Africans.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 23, 2020

Thank you so much

Achia Khaleda Jul 24, 2020

I want to know two thing, How do you make money from it and what is your sustainable model?

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

From every transaction there is a fee

Ingrid Constantin Jul 24, 2020

Hi Ronnex,
Congrats for your initiative! A few suggestions, if you would like to take them in consideration:
This is a great idea, but it would be good to explain why your idea is unique, compared to the other versions which already exist on the market.
-Have you thought about why would people use this instead of the ones which already exist i.e. would it be more user friendly, or more secure?
-It terms of sustainability, if you plan to make it global, again, the same questions come into my mind- how is your idea better than the competition?
-Explain more who your target audience is, provide some demographics
-Regarding the revenue, who would pay the fee? On the second goal you stated you aim to provide the cheapest digital wallet services; I was wondering if your competitors charging a higher fee than yours?
- Third goal sounds great! It would be helpful to get into more details how this will work.
-Providing references throughout is always good and makes your case stronger.
Have you considered providing a timeline for when the app will be ready?
Also, as I mentioned before since there are already other available ways to pay contactless via card or using a smartphone, how will you make yours accessible to individuals using cash, if they are not already using the contactless methods already available?
-Again, would be very useful to evidence that your app would be 10x cheaper, and also how is your idea more user friendly and easier to use than others.
Congrats again and the best of luck!

Best,
Ingrid

Users tagged:

Ronnex Wataya Jul 24, 2020

thank you so much. Wireless technology is the most secured way to perform transactions over existing methods that is why we chose the technology after conducting a good research and future predictions. i will answer why our is different from other apps on the store. MIWALLET has been designed to specifically meet one of the fintech industry goals and that is financial inclusion, while the other apps only allow users with visa and mastercards to operate , not only that but they also have few stores where their systems support and mentioning that there has been less than 1% penetration on the market for such and in SADC region no shop is accepting any of the available apps on the store which gives us all the room to take advantage of. one of the first step to ensure we are accepted on the market was multistakeholder aproach, we met with banks and discussed the future of payments and how they can assist us to roll out the product in time at the same time adhering to policies and regulations by central bank. we got a very positive feedback from the banking industry and are showing support agreeing with us that their mobile wallets havent been upto date to improve customer experience at the level we have proposed. looking at neighboring countries we are still conducting research and we have noted similar challenges now that it is more ideal time to introduce contactless payments at local level due to rise of covid19 cases where by exchanging cash is a threat we are fuelled to believe we are doing awonderful work. thank you

Diana Artiom Jul 24, 2020

Hi Ronnex, very great idea, best of luck with implementing it!

I was wondering how is this app better than existing androing/ios NFC based payment apps. What is your competitive advantage? Also, other than the statistics you have mentioned, have you preformed potential customer interviews? What are the people most likely willing the app to look/function like? Most importantly, how do you ensure security in such a system?

Thanks in advance for your answers. Best of luck with your idea!

Ronnex Wataya Jul 24, 2020

Thanks for asking, yes we did and we still do customer interviews and the feedback is very promising . the app is different from other android /IOS NFC payment apps. this app will be used locally compared to other apps on the store, it has been designed to target our local market with other technologies like QR in place. it will allow a local person integrate their local bank accounts compared to NFC apps in store which only supports visa or mastercards another important details to note is that the other NFC apps are not used in SADC region because they lack user support especially in this region and that gives us an opportunity to roll out the first NFC /QR based payment app in the region targeting every smartphone user regardless of their payment preference. we will focus more on customer experience than profits that is why we believe it will be a better digital wallet than competitors when we look at overall delivery plan. thank you

Diana Artiom Aug 10, 2020

Thank you for the reply and wor answering my questions. I also believe that a customer centric approach is key to today's competition!

Dominic Mills-Howell Jul 24, 2020

Greetings Ronnex,

First and foremost, great idea! Now, you state that a "functional prototype of MIWALLET app has already been developed" but it would have been useful to post a video or series of images how this prototype looks and functions. This way the user can more easily visualise the application and get a feel for it.

Secondly, I imagine there would be quite a number of protocols and paperwork involved in connecting with banks since these kinds of things contain a lot of sensitive information. What do you have in place in the case of a security breach? Moreover, how would your app prevent/mitigate breaches?

Ronnex Wataya Jul 24, 2020

Hi Dominic, It is true too much paperwork is involved. talking of Security i can tell you that despite adding security measures we are still on drawing critically thinking and exploring all possible loopholes of the system. so honestly it will take us abit long to finalize the security wall but we are surely working on it. some of the security measures we have inmplemented are ; PIN and Fingerprint authorization, Aplication ID validation which means no replica of the app can go through. Data validation. NFC part is ahead regarding safety. thank you

Kazi Jawoad Hossain Jul 24, 2020

What happens if user don't have a smartphone?

How would you keep customers money safe from hacking or other ways of stealing from their digital wallet. bKash a mobile money giant from Bangladesh has a very high rate of fraud and predatory occurrence.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 24, 2020

Thank you for asking, This app can only be installed in the smartphone, but we are also planning to roll out smartcards incase the user lost a phone or they prefer a card over a smartphone. there is a good security measure in the app and we believe we shall continue the improvements. thank you

Karin Rehar Jul 26, 2020

Hi Ronnex, have you made a research among potential users? And merchants?

Victoria Masso Jul 24, 2020

Status label added: Mentor feedback received

Onwuka Uchenna Jul 26, 2020

Smart idea,
However,can you consider making it work Globally?

Thomas Mueller Jul 26, 2020

Hi Ronnex, you are saying that you interface will all relevant banks. As far as I know only very fea banks currently have open APIs and interfaces for 3rd parties to work with. How do you make sure you get access to all those relevant banks and accounts?

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

That is a very good question, to be honest all banks do have APIs, this is how they manage to create new web platforms for their users. The only way to access the APIs is to partner with them

DJ Koeman Jul 30, 2020

Interesting model Ronnex. Have you looked at https://chippercash.com/

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

Thank you. i will check the link

José Salgado Aug 18, 2020

Hi Ronnex, how will you provide electricity and water units with credit? I know this is an expensive task so I want to know your plans on this.

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

Thanks for the good question. this is indeed a very costly task. our plan is to partner with a bank who will be charging on our main account whenever a user is requesting electricity units. this will mean the bank will be responsible issuing the units to the users through their email/phone numbers

Leidy Fajardo Sua Aug 19, 2020

Hi Ronnex, This idea is very useful, I think that highlight the security issues are very important to get partners. Maybe you can say something about the international standars that this tool can comply to give more confidence to your potencial customers. Good luck.

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

Yes very right. there is a guideline for mobile payment service providers by Central Bank.one of the policies is adhering to transaction/technology standards. we are making sure we are doubling the security than recommended

EUNICE KAJALA Aug 20, 2020

Hi Ronnex,

Good idea. How do you ensure the privacy and data security of your clients' transactions?

Ronnex Wataya Aug 22, 2020

Customer data is priority and we have put in all measures to secure their personal data and as well transaction data. one of the security measures are tokenization, encryption, private network, fingerprint authorization etc

DJ Koeman Aug 26, 2020

hi Ronnex, Tap&Pay requires both customer enabled device (NFC smartphone or sticker) as well as retailer NFC device. How will be paying for this?
In the meantime, you may want to have a look at our idea and vote for it if yo like it: https://cocreate.itu.int/post/3496670

Muyunda Kaonga Aug 27, 2020

Hi Ronnex, this a very brilliant idea and if executed properly can really scale up. One successful story is Mpesa in Kenya. You can also study Paytm of India so that you can see what best works for a country like Malawi. All the best