Nadya Eka Lestari
TechInAfrica — An offline money transfer system, NALA, has entered Tanzania. This Sub Saharan country is not a region with high internet connectivity. Using the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service was the only option for money transfer through a smartphone until 2017.
Previously, Tanzanian faced challenges in mobile money transferring such as weak internet connection and mistakes while typing prolonged code. Benjamin Fernandes, a mobile money expert, founded this startup as a problem solver for this issue.
The startup aimed at helping people in Tanzania in the beginning as it helped them simplify the money transfer. The founders dreamed of bringing the most efficient mobile money by introducing the revolutionary NALA, not only in Tanzania but in Sub-Saharan Africa.
NALA enables users to transfer money seven times faster compared to when they use the USSD system. The users just have to open the app, select Send Money and then the recipient. Recently, NALA is available in Uganda and the company is planning to expand its services to other countries by the end of 2019.
Fernandes believed in the human-centered design for app development. He engaged with people to understand their real needs which helped him to bring the best mobile money experience with a straightforward interface.
However, most users were worried about security but NALA also guarantees security. The company interviewed more than 450 people in person in the first one and a half years, and more than 11,000 from online surveys.
The lack of tech experts was one of the challenges Fernades faced in the beginning. Regardless of these challenges, NALA determined to keep growing along with other established finctechs in many African countries with a lot of time and effort. NALA could make its presence in the region due to the hard work to raise the funding and has bagged reputed awards for the innovation.
Source: startupworld.com
