Cellulant rolls out digital payments for water bills in Zambia

In another mobile payment innovation, fintech start-up Cellulant Zambia has partnered with five of this country’s water utility companies to enable digital payments. This brings an end to manual payments for which rural customers often had to travel long distances.

According to a media release, Cellulant has partnered with Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water and Western Water. Going forward, customers can use their preferred mobile money network, selected bank accounts and the digital payment platform Tingg to pay their water bills.

Since first partnering with Mulonga and Nkana three years ago, water utilities in Zambia have seen exponential growth in digital payments. Tingg alone processed over K11 million (about $646 000) since going live.

Announcing the partnership, Gilbert Lungu, the country manager for Cellulant Zambia, said, “Through the years, we have built a payments platform that seeks to solve issues faced by businesses and their consumers.

“Partnerships such as this are critical in ensuring that we deliver the best possible digital payment service in Zambia. The vertical of water utility companies is particularly critical because of the need to improve the collection efficiency for thousands of Zambians.”

Cellulant drives tech growth

Lungu said Cellulant believed in the power of technology to unlock opportunities.

“That is why we are here today to provide collection efficiency for all the water utilities. Honourable Minister, we know that your government has spoken of the role technology will play in growing the Zambian economy and Cellulant as a technology player in this space. We are ready to drive this growth.”

Lungu was addressing Mike Mposha, Zambia’s minister of water development and sanitation. He commended Cellulant for bridging the digital payment gap.

“I wish to take this opportunity to urge the utility companies to utilise technologies and innovations that will bring about revenue generation efficiency and help improve the financial viability of water utility companies. Revenue collection has been a challenge, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic; therefore, digital services provide a solution for decongesting payment points for water utility companies whilst arresting the spread of Covid-19.”

Over 300 000 water utility customers are set to benefit from the partnership and can now easily pay their water bills on Tingg by dialling *265#. Tingg is a payment gateway provided by Cellulant that gives businesses and their end-consumers a single unified payment experience.