The Problem
Proper access to primary healthcare services is one of the most fundamental aspects of our livelihoods. The demand for accessible healthcare professionals, facilities and services has been increasing following the poor economic situation in lower-middle-class income countries like Zimbabwe; where most citizens have to contend with the ever-increasing costs of accessing basic and critical medical services.
Furthermore, this challenging and inhibiting economic and financial environment in Zimbabwe has prompted a significant population of patients (particularly those in rural areas) to depend largely on money transfers from their respective relatives living in cities, across the border or in the diaspora.
However, both recipients and senders in most cases have to contend with the huge transaction costs and the volatile foreign currency conversion rates during the process. To worsen the situation, readily accessing the money is still not a smooth process either. Unlike dedicated medical financial services like KWALI, most financial institutions like local banks and other global money transfer services like Mukuru, Western Union and Worldremit have a geographical limitation and in standard practice, they do not explicitly manage transfers on a priority basis. This implies that in the case of an impending medical emergency (which is a high priority case scenario) the beneficiary may not even have access to their funds immediately. Access to your money should not be the reason why your visit to your medical doctor, dentist, optometrist, radiologist, or pharmacist is delayed...especially when it is available.
The Solution
KWALI is the long-awaited answer to the need for a widely accessible and easy to use platform where our rural community (and anyone for that matter) can instantly access funds from their loved ones without having to worry about the numerous obstacles that hinder the should-be smooth process. In short, KWALI is a WhatsApp-based payment platform for executing and managing healthcare-related financial transactions in economically unstable areas. KWALI works by connecting the 3 stakeholders in a medical-related transaction – the benefactor (the one sending the funds), the beneficiary (the one receiving the funds) and the partner (the medical institution or personnel where the beneficiary gets treatment). Currently, KWALI is active and accessible in over 13 districts around Zimbabwe and our coverage is still growing.
The Next Step
KWALI is traditionally and systematically created to make every aspect of the process easy and intuitive to both benefactors and beneficiaries. To access KWALI, all a person needs to do is register as a benefactor or as a beneficiary, depending on how they would like to use our services. The Benefactor will transfer the funds to cover the medical needs of the beneficiary. Our 5 STEP service process is seamless and easy to follow through:
- The first step is for the benefactor to send money to the beneficiary,
- Secondly, the money goes into the beneficiary’s wallet,
- Thirdly the beneficiary finds the preferred KWALI partner where they want to get medical services from,
- Fourthly, the beneficiary pays the KWALI partner using KWALI via WhatsApp
- Lastly, Kwali sends a notification of payment to the KWALI partner via WhatsApp.
Are you a benefactor, beneficiary or healthcare services provider? Join our growing and confident KWALI community now at https://www.kwali4u.com/