A Zambian NGO implementing health activities has to pay over 2,000 beneficiary allowances.

The majority of these beneficiaries, up to 83% of adults according to the 2018 ZICTA ICT Survey Report, have mobile phones, but many beneficiaries receive their allowances manually as cash, which can be a time-consuming process and may take productive time away from the beneficiaries.

Offering alternatives - especially digital options - to these processes can transform lives and businesses. Digital bulk payment options are more secure, save time and the funds can easily be channelled to other services in a short time-frame.

Many Zambian organisations, businesses and government departments make bulk payments to a vast array of recipients, but the corporate or not for profit client can often spend time preparing multiple payment files based on the end beneficiaries’ network, which can have errors or be prone to network instability. While there are several bulk payment tools in use in the Zambian digital financial services (DFS) industry, Zoona saw a need for one platform offering many DFS providers. As a result, Zoona’s fintech spinoff Tilt developed and launched the Tilt Payment Platform. Their interoperable platform aims to better serve enterprise clients so that they can pay in bulk with ease whilst giving their end beneficiaries a greater choice of payment providers to withdraw from.

Why launch a bulk payment platform?

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) researched the benefits of bulk payments on financial inclusion and economic empowerment.

• Bulk payments introduce e-money into the ecosystem at relatively low cost and can be used by agent networks to earn transactional revenue through value-added services.
• Data analysis showed that funds paid into the e-money ecosystem had a multiplier effect of 2.5 within the ecosystem.
• In 2019, the value of bulk payments in Zambia was less than 1% of all e-money transactions, illustrating the need to tap in this underserved sector of the market.
• As the market expands, there is need for more interoperable services which can be provided by third-party entities in collaboration with other players.

Tilt responded to this need for an efficient bulk payment platform by implementing the Tilt Payment Platform.

In 2019, UNCDF supported Zoona with Tilt’s development and roll-out by developing a robust strategy and updating its technology platform to expand the bulk payments product that is crafted with the business potential of different payment streams and payer/payee needs in mind.

What is Tilt Payment Platform?

Tilt Payment Platform is an enterprise solution enabling corporate or not for profit clients to send bulk payments and receive bulk collections utilising an interoperable choice of payment providers. Payments are sent via SMS to any mobile number then the receiver may choose how they wish to receive their money whether into their MTN, Zamtel or Tenga mobile wallets or they can withdraw as cash at any Zoona or Kazang agent. If a company wishes to receive bulk payments from customers, SMS invoices are sent and the customer can pay using the payment provider to suit them. The platform greatly reduces the time the client would spend preparing multiple payment files and reduces the number of errors or incomplete transactions that are experienced.

Tilt offers interoperability between various digital financial services (DFS) platforms, giving the customers greater access and choice. This is all made possible through one simple platform resulting in one prefunding, one reconciliation & one reporting so it streamlines efforts for finance teams.

This newly-developed platform will contribute to the accelerated expansion of the Zambia DFS ecosystem through interoperability between products. Tilt currently has 22 bulk payment clients actively utilizing the platform with majority paying beneficiaries as well as some paying out casual workers or clients.

How does it work?

The Tilt interface allows receivers to make choices about how they want to receive or pay their money. Once the entity makes a payment to a beneficiary or sends an SMS invoice, customers can:

1. Withdraw or pay with cash from any Zoona or Kazang agent
2. Dial a shortcode *321*5# to pay from or into an MTN, Zamtel or Tenga Mobile Wallet, or an Atlas Mara bank account.

With these methods, Tilt creates choice and access for beneficiaries and also broadens the opportunities for interoperability and financial inclusion. With more choices available, customers can better manage the funds they receive and will gain greater access to products such as microfinance and insurance products because of the easy repayment points.

Key benefits of the new platform

The robust software of the platform has comprehensive reporting capabilities that enable the client to easily monitor and track disbursements or collections with real-time digital receipts, thus fostering complete accountability. There are features that allow for approval notifications, online batch editing and prompting one-time-PINs (OTPs) from recipients to ensure safe transactions.

Tilt was designed to be an easy system to use – with no technical integration required. This interoperability makes it easy to bring on board other DFS providers and increase access nationwide.

“Tilt Payment platform is a safer way of helping us reach places we don't operate from. It protects our beneficiaries by reducing the handling of cash and it has equally reduced our business costs,” said Nick Mwelwa from Restless Development, who have used Tilt four months since November 2019.

How will Tilt impact the lives of Zambians?

An immediate benefit of bulk payments is minimising administrative expenses, thus allowing businesses or government departments to better utilise their funds. This can improve overall service delivery for a large number of people.

An effective bulk payment platform can be a useful tool for industries such as agriculture and mining that have a large staff complement located in remote areas. Offering financial services to these people enables them to continue with their transactions, bill payments and other activities without having to move from their place of work. Ensuring these customers have a wallet or digital account allows them to become financially included and also increases their ability to grow their money and improve their lives. This is an important outcome for all Zambians.

“Such platforms will become even more important in a time of crisis like we’re in now when governments need to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 by extending social assistance to the most vulnerable households a majority of which are women, youth, and refugees,” said UNCDF’s Data and DFS Expert Brian Katimbo.