Zimbabwean fintech company, Bitkesh rolls out WhatsApp based digital wallet.

Zimbabwean fintech company, Bitkesh, has rolled out a new WhatsApp-based digital wallet named, Uhuruwallet to help unbanked foreign nationals in South Africa make payments.

The Uhuru digital wallet is a platform that allows people to perform transactions such as person to person, person to merchant, cash-in, cash-out, utility bill payments, airtime purchases, and many more.

The platform leverages cryptocurrency to help people send money anywhere, without visiting an exchange bureau.

Co-founder of Bitkesh, Reginald Tsvetu said, “Bitkesh is now going to focus on payments in local currencies, like school fees, as well as acquiring corporate clients since they accrue a lot of local currency but still need to make foreign payments.”

However, Bitkesh has brought out a new WhatsApp-based digital wallet developed on the Stellar blockchain. The wallet primarily targets unbanked foreign nationals in South Africa.

Uhuruwallet runs on WhatsApp to serve the growing number of people that have access to smartphones.

Also, WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption that facilitates an interactive platform hence making transactions on Uhuruwallet intuitive.

Tsvetu further said the launch of UhuruWallet comes at a crucial time since Bitkesh’s sales started to drop. Thus, it has now started receiving a lot of traffic due to the COVID-19 national lock-down in the country.

Uhuruwallet has over 750 signups and on its way to moving ZAR1 million ($53,000) in the first month of its rollout.

“Uhuru will be a more casual wallet for peer-to-peer transactions. People have already started testing the send money option with their recipients exchanging the balance for hard cash with other peers looking to make payments such as DStv, Avon, and INUKA. We plan on spreading to the rest of the SADC region within six months.”

Uhuruwallet hopes is to become an interoperable, peer-to-peer platform with a borderless currency, that empowers people and enterprises to transact from anywhere, anytime in Africa.

Bitkesh is currently owned by Yolft Technology, South Africa, a largely digital platform that aims to simplify the way money is sent and received across geographical borders. Bitkesh was founded in 2017.