FANAKA
Growing with you
Learn, Borrow, Insure.
Fanaka’s community-led financial innovation uplifts Zambia’s MSMEs especially women and youth owned ones. Advancing poverty eradication, economic equality, and sustainable growth.
The Opportunity Statement
In Zambia, 27.3% of adults own MSMEs; 98.8% are micro-sized; 95.6% operate informally and face immense barriers such as limited access to financial services, high borrowing costs, and low financial literacy. Women, representing over 60% of MSME owners, face disproportionate challenges in accessing capital and formalizing businesses
Key Challenges
- Only 6.5% of MSMEs have bank accounts, of whom 7.3% applied for loans (2017–22).
- 69% rely on personal funds due to barriers like high-interest rates and lack of collateral.
- 48% of MSME owners have only secondary education; low financial record‑keeping (28%)
- 46% adversely affected by recent economic shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Solution
Our Awesome Tech Stack
Our Fanaka digital platform is an integrated suite of proprietary technologies designed to power inclusive finance for MSMEs. It includes
Kula App
a customer-facing mobile app that enables MSMEs to apply for loans, make repayments, access financial literacy training, microinsurance, and manage their credit journey.
Zanga FE App
a productivity tool for our Field Entrepreneurs to onboard, support, and monitor MSME clients in real time.
Fanaka Konnekt
our in-house core banking and loan management system that centralizes customer data, configures loan products, automates disbursements and repayments, and supports compliance and reporting.
Fanaka I.Q
our data intelligence engine that aggregates over 200,000 behavioral, demographic, and transactional data points to power a proprietary MSME credit scoring model and drive product optimization.
Our Approach
Community Led Financial Inclusion
● We train local agents embedded in communities to provide on‑the‑ground credit application, collections, and financial literacy sessions.
● Flexible Microloans that take into account the business cash flow
● Microinsurance Linkage: Working with Bestlife Insurance, we connect the MSMEs to tailored micro insurance cover
● Mobile Money - 34.5% adoption vs 1.9% national savings-accounts
● USSD & App-based Repayments for rural reach
● Working with Learn.Ink to provide MSMEs with gamified microlearning (SDG Target 4.6.1)
● Local language content, offline‑enabled modules
TESTIMONIALS
Susan Mwanza
Grocery & Vegetable Seller
Lusaka Province
I started with just K1,000 from Fanaka in May 2024. Today, I’ve grown to K6,000. I’ve managed to pay school fees for my children and even purchased a plot of land. I love the flexibility — I can repay anytime, even at 22 hours!
N.o of jobs created for entrepreneurs
Women Entrepreneurs
youth (34 and under)
N.o of MSMEs onboarded/Served
Returning clients
Satisfied clients