Building The ‘Super App’ For The African Market

This week, Cellulant – an Africa-focused payments services firm – is announcing a big play to build the comprehensive “catch-all app” for consumers in the African market. The company will rebrand its consumer product, Mula – heretofore calling it Tingg – but the change will be bigger than the name alone. According to Cellulant, Tingg will be the new hub for all of the digital financial services it offers to consumers, including bill payments, remittances, lending, group investments, food and gas orders – all housed in one app that will be live across eight Africa markets.

The move, according to Cellulant, will not just be to create another mobile commerce or payments niche site. The goal, according to a LinkedIn announcement, is to build the continent’s first “super app.”

The newly rebranded offering, according to the firm, will combine all the features customers most favored on the old Mula platform – particularly its digital bill payments function – along with the full range of connectivity services under Cellulant’s core brand.

The launch, according to reports, represents the culmination of long efforts by the brand’s Co-founders Ken Njoroge and Bolaji Akinboro when they first launched the firm over a decade-and-a-half ago. At the time, the market was not yet conceptually or technologically ready for a super app, but the duo believed that as the market evolved, so too would the need for a single, consumer-facing platform with the capability to offer a host of digital commerce and payments capabilities across Africa.

Mula’s launch four years ago was an intermediate step in that direction, with its capacity to digitize the payment and management of bills. It also offered a choice among payment forms: Consumers could tap mobile money accounts, prepaid cards or even bank accounts as necessary.

It was the right step for its time – but times have changed, and the market within the continent has both broadened and diversified. Consumers are looking for more than just a way to pay bills – they want to pay digitally in a variety of venues. Tingg is designed to address that need by opening up a wider range of capabilities, allowing consumers to transact more richly in both their home environments and also across Africa.

Tingg is taking a layered approach to the market, catering to different customers and business segments. Bill payment is a starting point, but the services on offer are relevant to banking, eCommerce, hospitality, food, travel, logistics and agriculture. In short, anywhere funds need to flow, Tingg aims to be the hub that makes it possible – and from as many locations as possible.

As of launch, depending on their nation of origin, consumers can use the Tingg service either via mobile app, web, POS or by working in person with a Tingg banking agent to carry out P2P money transfers, group payments, investments and lending. They can then link to all mobile money, debit/credit cards and banks from their mobile phones.

“Fundamentally, when you think about our vision of connecting everyone to everything, it boils down to providing an inclusive platform where commerce takes place seamlessly,” said Divine Muragijimana, Cellulant’s chief of brand, on why the company decided to rename and refocus Tingg. “Technology is making payments easier, faster and cheaper, thus putting the focus on the exchange of goods and services and adding value to the end consumer. This is what Tingg offers for individuals and businesses that are looking for a simplified, personalized, one-stop-shop for their lifestyle needs.”

She further noted that no matter how one regards Africa’s financial services future, the key issue is the fragmentation that essentially keeps these economies cash-locked. Opening up access to the market, Muragijimana noted, also opens up the regions to broader innovative efforts.

“No matter how you look at the future in Africa, it is centered around using mobile technology to solve everyday challenges. According to World Bank, 66 percent of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa have no bank account,” she continued. “The impact and role of mobile continues to bridge this gap, and payments as a service continues to move from being a mere in-person exchange of value to being a highly accessible autonomous enabler of all sorts of services. Basically, today, everyone has the potential to be a merchant – buyers are becoming sellers and vice versa. Payment gateway providers such as Cellulant make it possible for such interactions to happen.”