What is ClickPesa and why did we start it
Leading business payments in Africa
Let us start with a short case to picture what challenges ClickPesa solves. Merca Limited is a Tanzanian company that has been operating in Dar es Salaam for more than 6 years. Merca is a specialized procurement company for customers in East Africa. The company accepts payments from customers via a set of channels such as cheques, cash, mobile money payments and bank payments. It pays its staff weekly using mobile money. The company also has customers abroad paying in EUR and USD. Merca Limited spends significant time per week on reconciliation of payments, pays out the weekly salaries one by one to every employee’s mobile wallet and following up on payments of customers by physical visits to the bank.
From cash to mobile money
This is just a single example. Over the years, we noticed that many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania have the same challenges and complexities in payments when running and trying to grow their businesses. Many businesses run their operations using cash due to challenges faced in digital payments. Here’s the top 5 of challenges we came across:
- High monthly fees for maintaining bank accounts;
- Bank payment processes can be tedious involving cheque payments, branch visits or complex online banking portals not catered to the Tanzanian market;
- B2B mobile payments are not interoperable and settlement times are long;
- Mobile wallets do not support multiple currencies;
- High fees for receiving money from abroad
At the very centre of every business is to secure its supply of inventory and other inputs (to buy) and its ability to collect revenue (to sell). ClickPesa was created to simply facilitate these transactions. ClickPesa offers a platform that unifies payments services onto one platform for businesses in Africa. The platform connects with existing mobile wallets and bank accounts to facilitate payments.
Helping SMEs grow
ClickPesa was started because we noticed that if we are able to remove the challenges and complexities in transactions significant value can be unlocked to SMEs. Through extensive conversations with SMEs and entrepreneurs, we gained the right knowledge to create unique solutions that help SMEs and entrepreneurs perform better by increasing productivity and lowering cost.
ClickPesa offers four solutions on a web-based platform. Once an SME signs up for an account, it automatically gets a multi-currency payout wallet. The wallet can be used to interact with all four solutions. We understand that each business is unique and each service can be used singularly or in combination to realise an efficient, unique and cost-effective transaction. The solutions offer several advantages:
- Cost saving — overall business cost reduced, due to less manual intervention and reconciliation as a result of accepting digital payments;
- Speed — cash flow improvement with real-time authorisation and quick settlement;
- Business improvements — business improvements, in relation to chasing payments, customer engagement and reconciliation;
- Accounting improvements — Separated businesses finances with personal finance, generating high-quality financial records (e.g. Management accounts) for better business insights and accounting purposes.
Our services:
e-Invoice
Having a business means having customers, which means dealing with invoices. Our e-Invoice solution is convenient for a business that sells products or services domestically and internationally. Creating an invoice can be done within seconds, to receive a payment you can either select your existing bank details or let ClickPesa handle the payment on your behalf. Using your existing bank details within the invoice is free. When ClickPesa handles the payment on your behalf you get paid out in your payout wallet. With the payout wallet you can use the e-Bureau de Change solution to exchange the currency to your preferred currency.
Benefits:
- Ability to receive multiple currencies without existing multi currency accounts
- Cheaper fees when receiving money from abroad
- Standardized invoice formats
- Free service when using your own bank account details
- Automated reminders to customers
- Instant payment option within the invoice
e-Bureau de Change
The e-Bureau de Change is a solution where you can exchange your currencies, all done digitally without leaving your desk or home. For example, you have USD in your bank account and need TZS in your mobile wallet; this service can facilitate that exchange at the best exchange rate. We are able to offer our SMEs the best rate through a comparison of live exchange rate deals from banks, Bureau de Change and licensed brokers to offer the best exchange rate deals. ClickPesa customers no longer have to physically shop around for the best exchange rates again.
The currency pairs we currently support:
TZS into USD
USD into EUR
USD into TZS
EUR into TZS
TZS into EUR
EUR into USD
We will add more currencies based on the demand; please let us know which currency you think is missing.
Benefits:
- Access to the best exchange rates
- No commission
- Multiple exchange and payout options
In-store and Online Payments (In beta, coming soon)
Whether your business has a physical store or uses the internet to sell goods and services, this solution is great for automating the receiving payment part. ClickPesa handles the payments for your business via different channels.
Benefits:
- Unified single infrastructure to accept multiple payment channels (i.e. mPOS, Web checkout page and plugins)
- A seamless experience for customers
- Unified single infrastructure to accept multiple payment methods (i.e. Mpesa, Visa)
Bulk Payments (In beta, coming soon)
When your company grows, the amount of transactions grows. You might hire an accountant or administrator to handle these transactions. With the bulk payments solution this is not needed: you can simply payout a batch of several payments all at once with a single click.
Benefits:
- Tracking of each single payment
- Real-time reporting
- Notifications on failed payments
- Multiple payout channels
