Zoona is a Zambia-based fintech company providing financial services to people who need them most.
 
In Africa, unemployment and broken social nets mean that millions of people rely on extended families to for financial support to make ends meet. Unfortunately, over 80% of people in the region have no access to formal financial services depending entirely on cash for their transactions.
 
Zoona developed a financial platform which emerging entrepreneurs can use to provide essential financial services and built a cross-country distribution network of Zoona Agents to convert electronic value to cash and vice versa, in convenient, high-traffic areas such as bus stations, markets and shopping centres. The platform works on the simplest mobile devices, allowing Zoona agents and tellers to easily set up a franchise “business-in-a-box” to serve their communities.
 
To date, Zoona has created over 2,500 jobs in Zambia and Malawi, the company’s first two African markets, empowered over 1,000 entrepreneurs to start their own business and allowed them to reach earnings of over $10 million. One million people use Zoona every 60 days, and since 2009, over $1 billion has been processed in transactions on the company’s system.
 
Zoona’s differentiator is its agent network. By working with emerging entrepreneurs, who own Zoona franchise business in their own right, the company taps into the strong drive of young people (particularly women), from across the continent.
 
By 2020, Zoona aims to become the leading financial services brand for 30 million monthly active consumers, and in so doing, help increase financial inclusion and social cohesion across Africa. The company will scale its agent network to 10 African countries, and in so doing, will foster the growth of emerging entrepreneurs an small, medium and micro enterprises.