Kazang: Leveling the Playing Field for Informal Traders in Africa

Banks on our continent have largely ignored informal traders. There's a host of reasons for this but there has always been a sense of wonder regarding how a tech solution for Africa's informal would work. That's where Kazang enters... For over a decade now the company has been providing POS machines to informal traders in different African markets allowing them to resell prepaid services and accept card transactions.

How does Kazang work?

In the most basic of terms Kazang started off allowing spaza shops (informal convenience shop), traders and other entrepreneurs to resell prepaid products (think airtime and utility bills) for a commission split.

In order to be able to resell these prepaid services interested parties have to acquire Kazang POS devices or an application where all the magic occurs. If acquiring POS machines traders have two options:

1. outright purchases which allows them to earn a high % profit split from day one or:
2. they get the machine for free and have a lower profit split with Kazang until they pay off the cost of the POS device.

Kazang currently has presence in 4 markets, offering the following services: