One of the biggest challenges faced by start-up businesses is poor record keeping, which results in the inability to make proper business analyses. The other key challenge is managing payments and money in general.
It is these problems that prompted Emmanuel Kimaro, to start Bizzyn, a business management tool that enables users in accounting, inventory, payroll, tax filing, invoicing, bank account tracking and reconciliation, expense management, budgeting, payment processing, and accounts receivable and accounts payable management.
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According to Emmanuel Kimaro, the Bizzyn founder and CEO, the company gives power to business owners, especially Small and Medium Enterprises, to fully take control of their business using a swift digital tool that acts as a substitute for paperwork.
“With Bizzyn you can send an invoice to a client and digitally receive the payment for that invoice. We are making SMEs get paid ten times faster than before,” Kimaro says.
Founded in 2020, Bizzyn has become a much-sought-after tool in Tanzania, with more than 220 SMEs already using this tool.
“We are now working hard to scale into other East African countries. We have resellers in other markets like Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and South Africa. So, with that growing number of clients, we project that our annual turnover will increase rapidly. We want to impact as many SMEs as possible,” he says.
Kimaro notes that one of their cardinal objectives is women empowerment, and this is achieved by targeting women-led SMEs.
“In Dar es Salaam, about 60-70 percent of SMEs businesses are run by women. So, we believe that when we impact these SMEs we are impacting women, their families, and the whole society.”
Although Kimaro credits the Tanzanian government and financial service providers for supporting and partnering with FinTechs respectively, he wants the government to loosen up on the requirements one needs to get a FinTech license.
He is however optimistic that the FinTech industry in Tanzania and East Africa, in general, is riding an upward trajectory, especially with the support of initiatives like the 40 Days 40 FinTechs.
“One of the issues that most Africans miss is Pan-Africanism…we have been relying on people from outside the continent to come and tell our story. But when we get the opportunity with HiPipo 40 Days 40 FinTechs, it is superb. It is something we have been missing. We will reach further,” he says.
40 Days 40 FinTechs
Based in Tanzania, Bizzyn is the 44th participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative that seeks to shine a light on the unique innovations that are enabling ever more people to join the digital economy space.
The initiative is run under HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox, and Crosslake Technologies, and is supported by the Gates Foundation.
According to HiPipo CEO, Innocent Kawooya, digital innovators and FinTechs around East Africa have embraced Season three which has already covered Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania participants.
“We are very happy that FinTechs in the East African region have taken up this opportunity to showcase how they are solving everyday problems using Level One Project principles,” he said.
Kawooya added that this year’s edition has cemented the achievements of the previous editions – where over 60 FinTechs were transformed – but also built on them to leverage digital financial inclusion in East Africa and beyond.
“As HiPipo, our extensive effort and advocacy is partly for the intention of championing digital innovation and interoperable instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) in Africa to a point where our innovators enjoy and achieve sound profit margins to help them keep designing and deploying affordable and inclusive financial services for the poor,” he said.
The #40Days40FinTechs platform is run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa.
It offers participants useful tools and an introduction to the industry’s emerging technologies, such as Mojaloop Open Source Software, and guidance from Level One Project foundational material. The skills gained from this initiative cover Level One Project Principles, Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), Inclusive Finance and FinTech in general.
