How young entrepreneur turned a dream into lucrative e-payment firm

At 30, Danson Muchemi has achieved what remains a dream to his peers. His company, JamboPay, automated NHIF’s revenue collection to support mobile phones, built the system that realised the first mobile pension scheme in the world and rolled out a platform and agents to help Nairobi Water Company collect revenue.

That is not all. Early this year, his IT firm won a Sh2.7 billion tender to automate revenue collection in Nairobi County after facing off against technology giants like IBM, Silicon Craft, Oracle, Safaricom, Equity and CBA to emerge best.

READ: Nairobi reacts to revenue leaks with e-payment system

“Technical capability and versatility of our designed system must have propelled us to the top,” said Mr Muchemi, the chief executive officer of JamboPay, WebTribe’s flagship company.

“When pitching to the evaluation team, comprising experts from PwC, ICT Authority and the county technical team, we had the system ready and we showcased a product instead of selling an idea,” he said.

Staying in touch with the market and taking into account the changing trends, enables the company to create products that improve, empower and compliment people’s lives, he says. Mr Muchemi started off with a laptop and a dream and he now employs 70 people and his company has presence in Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Netherlands.

The company focuses on online payment systems, web applications and network security. It enables electronic cash disbursement through mobile money, credit cards or other channels of payment.

For instance, using Uchumi Live, shoppers can buy items from the comfort of their homes or offices through JamboPay and pick packed shopping from select branches or have it delivered. The system enables secure online payments.

The graduate of telecommunication and information technology from Kenyatta University founded the company after quitting from a Turkish electronic payment company. He says he wanted a place he could work on his thoughts uninterruptedly. He founded WebTribe in 2009 at the age of 25 and his main inspiration was to create an easier mode for Kenyans to make payment from the comfort of their homes or offices.

“I teamed up with a friend and developed the software behind JamboPay, a mobile and online payment gateway and applied for approval from Central Bank of Kenya which came two years later,” he said.

“The delay was heart-breaking because they thought that I was too young to guarantee success of the platform,” he said.

But he has defied the odds, steering the company to new heights. The company recorded a 67 per cent growth in value of transactions and 80 per cent in volume of transactions last year alone. The growth, he says, shows that more locals are making online payments.

“Trust is the biggest challenge in online payments, but when fraud loopholes are intercepted, people use online payment gateways and business grows,” he said.

JamboPay now serves 1,500 e-payment service clients like Nairobi Water Company and Uchumi Supermarkets as companies look to tame corruption and improve efficiency in service delivery. The Nairobi Water agents have a device that generates electronic invoices.

His remarkable entrepreneurial spirit has won Mr Muchemi many accolades. Last year, Forbes Magazine named him as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa to watch in 2014 while JamboPay won the Google Innovation award in financial services.

Citing challenges and turning them into opportunities, he says, has made it possible for him to stay relevant in the market while paying attention and meeting customer needs has won him many clients.

WebTribe makes money by charging the e-payment service clients a three or 3.5 per cent commission of the transaction made.

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