VITApay Application System

1). Our proposed payment system is committed to fighting the spread of COVID-19 by encouraging marginalized people in remote parts of their countries to observe social distancing which is difficult to observe in the absence of mobile service payment system like ours when these people are queued-up at central social welfare offices to receive monthly social services.

2). VITApay will be a very secure payment system which will allow subscribers of various mobile service providers in different countries particularly the marginalized people who reside in remote parts to be considered for their inclusiveness to access any social welfare services by simply dialling an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code even on a most basic type of GSM mobile phone and not just a smart phone. 

3). Our system will positively affect their lives as they will have ample time to engage in other income-generating activities as opposed to queuing long-hours.

The problem at hand which is currently affecting the whole world is the COVID-19 Pandemic with no cure and the equally terrible problem affecting almost all countries of the world are the increasing numbers of people being infected at daily basis. As of today 13 August 2020, the numbers of confirmed infected cases stands at 20.6 million worldwide with over 300,000 new infections in the last 24 hours worldwide, with over 700,000 deaths (Wikipedia and World Health Organisation website). 

One of the major problem affecting this pandemic is the failure to observe social distancing in many different parts of the world including the remote areas where most of the marginalized and vulnerable people reside. We are all affected and therefore we all have a duty to stop the further spread of COVID-19 if our lives are to be spared As people go about their day to day business even in these remote areas disregarding the importance of observing social distancing, the more people will continue getting infected with COVID-19 to unmanageable levels leading to deeper health disasters than we are currently witnessing globally. 

Our proposed payment solution, VITApay, will be targeted to serve the marginalized and vulnerable people (including the women, children, refugees, the differently-abled or physically challenged, old and young) who reside in remote parts or areas their respective countries of the world by helping them observe social distancing as they will no longer be required to queue up at central social welfare offices usually for very long hours in order to receive their monthly disbursement of funds but will now be able to do so by simply dialing a USSD code (which is a short messaging code) even with a very basic mobile phone and not just on a smart mobile phone. Thereafter, they can go and withdraw their money at any already existing mobile service payment booth that will be integrated with our proposed payment system in conjunction with already existing mobile service providers. 

Through literature conducted past research, we are able to understand their problems which are now being compounded during this time of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Our proposed solution will help the targeted people in various countries that it will be launched to observe social distancing when accessing social-welfare services and therefore help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The problem of not observing social distancing leading to the spread of COVID-19 even among marginalized in remote areas is made worse as these people are made to receive their monthly social-welfare disbursement of funds usually at central points after queuing up for the same mostly for longer hours, sometimes more than a day. The queuing up encourages overcrowding which encourages the spread of COVID-19 among these people even in remote parts of various countries of the world. Our proposed solution will help stop the spread of COVID-19 by people observing social distancing when using our system.

One of our competitor mode of payment uses the manual way which is our national government run payment system. This is mostly for vulnerable people in various rural areas of our our country Zambia which includes manually disbursing of funds and this disbursing usually lasts more than 3 days just in one area. The beneficiaries are made to stop their other income generating activities in order to queue up in one central place organised by the responsible government ministry and this queuing up of these beneficiaries can even be for more than one day as they avoid missing from the crowd when their name is called out and peradventure they are not around. A similar type of disbursement of funds is currently being used by one of the refugee camps within Zambia managed by U.N.H.C.R. I know many countries are facing a similar such challenges like in my country.

Our proposed system is innovative in that it will incorporate existing technology of mobile service providers - the simplest USSD code system which even the most basic mobile phone can use without needing internet as the case may be in many remote and rural parts of the world and we will also incorporate already exiting mobile payment system technology such as mobile money which is tried, tested and currently working securely and perfectly.

During these times of COVID-19, our system will be ideal to use because the targeted marginalized/ vulnerable users in remote areas will be able to observe social distancing  

Our proposed technology is one which is already in use widely even in our country Zambia by various mobile service providers working with various companies who have created applications for their user-subscribers of certain services such as pension-contributors and beneficiaries of our National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) which uses the USSD code *303# for MTN subscribers bearing in mind that most of their platform users are in rural or remote areas where internet connectivity is very erratic or unavailable. 

The USSD code or unstructured supplementary service data code works in such a way that any current mobile service subscriber who either owns a smart phone or a most basic Global System for Mobile (GSM) phone can simply dial a given short messaging code (USSD) on their phone such as the one given above for our NAPSA and proceed to enter their identification particulars such as their names and PIN (private identification number) or code and their after enter a secure space to transact as they so wish or intend to at that particular time. Thereafter, they can terminate a transaction by simply login out. In the case where a subscriber needs to receive funds, they then proceed to cash out at a mobile money booth for a mobile service provider they are subscribed to or any other independent mobile money agent who is licenced to operate on behalf of a given mobile service provider.

Our proposed system requires very basic literacy levels of a user to operate.

Our Company proposed payment system, VITApay, will have a great impact on the lives of the users in these times of COVID-19 in that the would-be users will be able to get funds disbursed to them at their own convenience thereby practice social distancing by avoiding to queue up to receive the same as the case now is in the absence of our payment system. Digitizing disbursement of funds to marginalized or vulnerable people leads to efficiency in the way it is distributed by the relevant authorities and this will allow beneficiaries to not miss any income generating opportunities as the case is when they have to queue for very long hours awaiting for their names to be called out. The introduction of our proposed system will also greatly impact the targeted beneficiaries in that through the integrated mobile money accounts affiliated to their mobile phone numbers, they will now be able to save any funds that they do not have immediate use for thereby allowing them to start saving for any emergencies at a later stage. Some of them engaged in any small businesses will be able to save up funds in their mobile money accounts to make investments at a later time. Another great impact on would-be beneficiaries is that our proposed digitized payment system will allow them to be aware before hand of when cash disbursements by the relevant authorities will actually take place via receiving a text message of exactly when it will be unlike currently where dissemination of information of when disbursements will be conducted is very poor, coupled with uninformed delays or postponements which leave beneficiaries with no clue or idea of when actual disbursement would take place. Our proposed payment system would therefore lead to predictable times of disbursement thereby allowing would-be beneficiaries to be well informed before time and adequately plan for it accordingly.

Some of the current challenges of not having a digitized payment system such as our proposed one are highlighted in a survey in the given link below for one of the refugee camps in our country Zambia-https://www.uncdf.org/article/3345/can-digitization-of-social-cash-transfers-improve-the-lives-of-refugees-in-zambia 

The USSD technology allows for integration of identification systems as these platforms offer some level of either 2 way or multiple-ways of authentication. The recent incorporation of USSD technology with mobile money payment systems by most mobile service providers especially in Africa has necessitated a way of providing some identification of the owner of the mobile money user account incorporated with the owner of the mobile phone number. This now requires the owner of that cellular phone number to be registered with a mobile service provider they are with by providing their personal particular together with the image of their national identification card which is scanned and saved against their details accordingly. The integration of identification systems with the USSD technology is further strengthened by the requirement of a user to provide a secret code or PIN which now acts a user's mode of personal identification and is authenticated accordingly by the identification systems of respective mobile service providers. 

The added advantage of the USSD technology is that it is not sophisticated at all and for the marginalized or vulnerable people that will be operating it, all they will be required to do is select using given numbers of listed items in a given menu to transact accordingly in very simple and straight forward terms. 

Our proposed solution can be said to be user friendly in incorporating into a digital identification system because there is already existing technology such as the one we are proposing and customizing the same technology is out of this world as competent computer scientists are able to do the required job. The goodness with our modern times is that most systems have the ability or provisions to be integrated with other systems and they end up running smoothly.

As defined by Wikipedia, interoperability "is the ability of different information systems, devices and applications ('systems') to access, exchange, integrate and cooperatively use data in a coordinated manner, within and across organizational, regional and national boundaries, to provide timely and seamless portability of information."

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is an old technology or communication protocol used by GSM cellular phones to communicate with the mobile service providers' computers or technological systems.

USSD uses a common or open standard all over the world and it can be used for wireless application protocol browsing, prepaid callback service, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and also as part of configuring the phone on a given network of a service provider.  

Our proposed system therefore provides for open APIs to be integrated with other systems or for data portability and to avoid vendor lock-in.

Our proposed solution accounts for low connectivity environments and for users with low literacy as well as numeracy levels in that it is built on a technology which is text-driven. This technology allows subscribers to interact in real time directly from their mobile phones by simply selecting from a menu after pressing a given code and does not need internet access to operate but only requires the presence of a mobile phone service function.

Currently, our proposed solution is not serving any users as it has not yet been built. Once built, tested and launched, our solution will be in one year not less than about a 1000 users because there many prospective users for our solution in the remote areas of our country , to start with. 

There will definitely be more people that will be using our proposed solution once it is rolled out in other countries because just in Africa, more people reside in remote areas than in urban areas.  

Our goal in one year is to have our payment system - VITApay - fully functional and rolled out within our country Zambia in order to effectively join in fighting COVID-19 by providing an effective way of observing social distancing while the marginalized and vulnerable persons are receiving the monthly social welfare income from local authorities.

In the next five years and all things being equal especially as regards winning a grant from MIT Solve, we look forward to ding business beyond our national borders as our payment system not only caters for our own country but can be useful in other countries as well because most of the social challenges with our own marginalized and vulnerable people in our remote areas is similar in other countries especially in Africa, including that of refugees, particularly when it comes to receiving cash disbursements on a monthly basis as this is very much manually done and during these times of COVID-19, infections are on the rise as social distancing as hardly observed or enforced.

The introduction of our business in other countries especially as we partner with organisations such as MIT Solve and UNHCR will help in the facilitation of some easy passage for our business thereby avoiding some government bureaucracy in some countries as these organisations with introduce our service product on our behalf which we greatly need. This will result in our business expanding as new business comes our way translating into more income generation for our business. 

One of our major challenge is funding which we hope we can overcome through winning this much needed grant, to cater for our first to five year goals.

We plan to overcome this challenge by winning this grant and any other that we may come across.

Not applicable.

Full time staff - 2. Contractors - 2. We have not yet started working on this particular solution we are proposing here but have been working on other technological products.

Temwaninge, CEO; with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Library and Information Studies; and Development Studies - a double major study programme; and a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science, both from the University of Zambia; with over 15 years experience in database creation and management; Creating, troubleshooting and managing computer networks; and, conducting social research in rural communities as well as conducting planning, monitoring and evaluation of the same social research activities.

Katai - CTO; has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical/ Electronics Engineering and Masters in Computer Science, specialising in web-based and mobile applications; both from United Kingdom.

Currently, our company is not in partnership with any other company or organisation.

Our business model is as follows with particular items listed under key headings in bold.

Key Stakeholders - MIT Solve and the government of the republic of Zambia.

Value Proposition - Receiving monthly social livelihood-subsistence payments from government/s and other stakeholders through a mobile payment system to encourage social distancing during these times of COVID-19.

Cost Structure - Staff wage bill and operational costs; hosting of our company payment system on various mobile service providers' platforms as well co-operating associated costs when working with independent mobile money/financial agents or banks.

Key Resources - Grant, qualified staff, advisory network and international organisations such as MIT Solve, UNHCR and national governments when our business crosses our our own national borders.

Revenue - Grant, percentage volume of all transactions via mobile service providers' platforms as well as those from micro financial institutions with mobile money services.

Type of intervention - Grant

Key Activities - provision of a payment system working in conjunction with mobile service providers to host the same and revenue generation through accrued percentage of transacted volumes through the said platforms of mobile service providers as well as other stakeholders such as banks.   

We hope to raise funds through grant applications such as this one we are applying for under MIT Solve and any other that we will come across suiting what we are able to do as well as deliver. We do not have capacity at the moment to approach banks in order to acquire loans as we are not currently in a position to adequately meet some of their requirements such as collateral inform of fixed assets such land or property.

We have not raised any capital so far.

We do seek to raise capital or funding in order to sufficiently meet our monthly costs of running our business as well as that of our wage bill including those personnel necessary for the smooth running of our business that currently are not part of our team, such as an accountant, administrative personnel, procurement and at least one in charge of business development. Other than costs related to our personnel, we will have to meet other costs related to furniture that we will have to buy and at least one pool vehicle for operational purposes. We will therefore require at least a minimum of about US$100,000 funding for starters, which we will have to use part of it to finance the other aspects of programming our payment software we are proposing in this our application.

For 2020, our budget of expected expenses is about US$30,000.

We are applying to the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize because we are interested on winning the grant which we will use to among other things help us finance the software development of our proposed payment system and help our company meet other administrative running costs.

As a company, we will definitely need expertise in perfecting our proposed solution; on product/ service distribution; advisory service on funding and revenue model; when to constitute a board, when we will need it; how to effectively market our service product and the best media to use; how to go about the legal and regulatory matters as well as how to effectively and efficiently monitor and evaluate our business.

As a company, we would like to partner first of all with MIT Solve as we believe MIT Solve holds together the various linkages as regards how a payment system such as ours can be implemented effectively in remote areas of other countries beyond our own borders of Zambia in order to fight COVI-19 effectively.