Cellulant to power payments for ImaliPay’s drive for Gig Workers’ financial inclusion

By Edlyn Cardoza

ImaliPay, the one-stop financial platform for Africa’s gig workers, has partnered with pan-African payments company Cellulant for its payments infrastructure and solutions in Kenya and Nigeria. The ease of making and receiving payments for freelancers will be significantly improved through this partnership and will change how gig workers experience making payments. The partnership will further drive financial inclusion by allowing ImaliPay users to access financial services quicker through Cellulant’s payment rails.

Sanmi Akinmusire, co-founder and COO of ImaliPay, says, “Most of the financial services provided today are not designed with the gig workers in mind and our aim at ImaliPay is to build an ecosystem where gig workers can create a safety net around their work through savings, credit, and insurance that drives their productivity and economic empowerment.”

“Our partnership with Cellulant is an important step in our journey to improve the financial health of gig workers on the continent by leveraging Cellulant’s payment infrastructure to offer our customers an easy way to make and receive payments,” commented Tatenda Furusa, co-founder and CEO of ImaliPay, speaking to the importance of the partnership to the business.

The partnership is serendipitous for the two co-founders, both alumni of Cellulant, having worked at the company between 2013 and 2020. Tatenda worked in Cellulant Zimbabwe and then Cellulant Kenya as Technical Advisor to Co-founder Ken Njoroge, supporting the business strategy after Series C fundraising and Sanmi as the Chief Commercial Officer of Tingg Payments and Marketplace across Nigeria and Africa. The founding duo continues to contribute to the African FinTech growth story. ImaliPay’s most recent accolade is receiving funding from Google through its Google for Black Founders Fund.

Regarding the partnership, David Waithaka, Group Chief Business Officer at Cellulant, said, “At Cellulant, we’re driven by our belief to provide solutions to everyday challenges across Africa by digitizing payments for various value chains. For us, it’s about what people, businesses and communities can do when the movement of money becomes seamless, dependable and more transparent. We’re proud to partner with Imali Pay, with whom we have shared values and ambitions, to grow the gig economy in Africa.”

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that the growth witnessed in Kenya is reflective of the payments landscape in the rest of Africa, reports Cellulant, with a noted shift in consumer behaviour.