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Kotani Pay

Host

Producer

Status

Published

Platform used

Sponsors

Recorded link

Date & Time

‣

Episode

306

Guest & Project

Felix

show note

Season

Property

About

Reliable blockchain offramp service in Africa

handles all KYC, regulation & compliance

ensures users pay the lowest fees for withdrawal from the blockchain to mobile money and bank accounts

Integrates to all major fiat channels including local banks and mobile money with robust yet simple white labelled API

Target users for gig work, UBI, Cash transfer, remittances, lending & savings

Questions

Tell us first the story of Felix Macharia, your career, your passions, etc. ✅

How did you find yourself interested in a new frontier such as this one? ✅

being in the room, AI use ✅

Tell us about Kotani pay beyond it being a stablecoin to fiat on-ramp and off-ramp service, what is the core mission and how have you worked towards those goals so far? ✅

As the CEO & Co-founder, what do you think is the missing piece of information? ✅

Kotani Pay uses USSD, for those not aware this stands for ‘Unstructured Supplementary Service Data’, which Essentially allows users to enter a string of digits often bracketed by a star and hash symbol to execute a transaction. USSD is in many ways the backbone of mobile money, which has of course taken Africa and I believe Latin America by storm.

Where are your services currently available? I know USSD tends to be quite challenging to apply globally, have you found a way to combat that as yet ✅

According to your site, you currently have 4248 (15k now) users, do you have a specific user target, or perhaps transaction target? And is it a marketing matter or simply time and education? ✅ (326k txns in 2022)

According to statistica the World Bank, in 2021 the vast majority of remittances sent to Sub-Saharan Africa went to Nigeria, with a total value of 19.2 billion U.S. dollars, with Ghana following with roughly 4.5 billion U.S. dollars. Other countries like Kenya brought in 3.7 billion, Senegal 2.7 billion, Zimbabwe 2 billion, the DRC 1.3 billion, Uganda 1.1 billion, Mali 1.1 billion, South Africa 900 million and Togo 700 million.

For Tanzania and Nigeria, 200 U.S. dollars from these countries amounted to 27 percent and 19 percent of the sum sent, respectively on fees alone.

With these numbers, it only makes sense that people would be interested in easier and more affordable ways of sending this money across, services that you as Kotani Pay are offering. How then do you reach these people outside of Africa who are likely to send money back home to their respective countries? ✅

Speaking of Fintechs, how have you found their reaction to be particularly towards Kotani Pay but also towards other blockchain and/or crypto facing companies? ✅

Abigail Munene, could you share what you role is at Kotani Pay? ✅

What insight could you share with us about being at the frontlines of this space? ✅

What is your ‘why’ for being here, would you consider yourself a believer in blockchain technology? ✅

Kotani Pay and integration with the medical field in any way? ✅

3 words on how you feel about the space ✅

There is a world yet to be discovered, and this time, Africa is at the core of the table. ✅