SHERIA KIGANJANI (LAW ON YOUR PALM)

Majority of advocates in Tanzania are found in urban areas, as its a challenge to the Tanzanians living in the rural areas because when they need to access legal education or services they have to travel a long distance and incur exorbitant costs to get them. 

Sheria Kiganjani is the first online legal digital platform in Tanzania which enable users to access various legal services remotely from their devices i.e. Mobile Phones, Tablets, Computers etc. Sheria kiganjani aims at serving first individual ranging from 18 and above, our service is provided 24 hours, as you can access legal information and knowledge anytime and anywhere when needed by an end user. 

The general public in the sense that it slowly reduce the workload of cases in the courts of law; hence assist in speeding up the hearing of disputes that are registered for adjudication. 

By December 2017 Tanzania was estimated to have a population of 57,310,019 (world meters). Around the same time, the country had a total of 6329 lawyers, including those who practice as private advocates, state attorneys and legal officers. By these statistics, the proportion of each lawyers in serving Tanzanians is 1:9055. Majority of these lawyers are found in urban areas, this becomes a challenge to the Tanzanians living in the rural areas because when they need to access legal education or services they have to travel a long distance and incur exorbitant costs to get them. That is why we developed & introduced Sheria Kiganjani (LAW ON YOUR PALM).

Sheria Kiganjani targets people (youth) who are in the age group of “18 – 40” years coming from “low & middle income groups”.

• As of 2019, Tanzania has a population of 60 million people.
• Youth constitutes of 55% of the total population thus 33 million.
• Targeting 3% of the total number of youth thus 1 million.
• Prospects of our reach is within three years of operation.

Currently, we have achieved to reach 8000+ people in a period of 6 month. Our targets population basically are Tanzanians who are in need of legal education and advice especially those living in urban as well as rural areas. Our first target regions has been Dar es Salaam, Mara, Arusha, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, Mbeya, Kigoma, Kagera and Iringa. In these regions, many people lack access to legal education, are denied their rights and usually conflict arise among and between farmers, pastoralists, clashes between small and large scale miners etc

Sheria Kiganjani is the first online legal digital platform in Tanzania which enable users to access various legal services remotely access legal services from different places of Tanzania and an end end user can access all of our services without a need of moving from place to another.

Sheria Kiganjani is the first innovative and online legal digital platform in Tanzania which enables an individual or a group of people to access legal information as well as materials despite of their location they are found. Through Sheria Kiganjani, end user can access legal services (legal articles, reported cases, legal documents / information etc.) via our website or Sheria Kiganjani android app. 

Currently our platforms uses a Human centered design process and Web Technology, SMS technology as well as a Mobile technology, we are looking forward having a USSD technology.

In these platform, he can select a topic he wants and view all questions and answers related to that topic for instance human right, Gender, land etc. When he is not satisfied with Q & A, he may press the button Tupigie (Call Us) from our app and talk directly to our advocates. With this application, anyone can access our services from their home, office, farms or anywhere. We have solved multiple cases ranging from youth, women, men, farmers and pastoralists through our phone number as well as online chat page incorporated in our app. 

Sheria Kiganjani is the only innovative and online legal digital platform in Tanzania that uses web, mobile and SMS technology in departing the traditional methods of accessing various human rights as well as consulting advocates. Sheria Kiganjani was introduced so that it can promote and boosting human rights, provide legal advice and education in Kiswahili with the purpose of solving people’s problems by a Do-it-Yourself approach. Our App enable users to get first class knowledge of all legal matters as well as people with disabilities.  Since we launched this product in September 18, 2018, we have reached more than 8000 people in Tanzania.

Sheria Kiganjani uses an existing Mobile, Web and SMS technology which enables an individual or a group of people to access legal information as well as materials despite their location. A person can access various legal articles, news, reported cases, Acts, legal documents and information via our website or Sheria Kiganjani android app. In these platform, he can select a topic he wants and view all questions and answers related to a topic of his choice e.g. human right, Gender, land etc. When he is not satisfied with Q & A, he may Call directly from the app and talk to lawyers. 

We are going to use an existing business model where an end user will be able to subscribe for our services within the application. we intend to integrate it with the payment gateway that will enable people to pay for a very minimal amount of their services while in the application.

Our solution has proved a success because since we rolled it out this product in September 15th 2018, Sheria Kiganjani has been downloaded by more than 8000 people and has resolved multiple cases of youth, women, men, farmers and pastoralists through our phone number, Question and Answers as well as online chat page found in the app & website.  

Please see the below image which was taken in March.

With our simple and online marketing strategies, Sheria Kiganjani has reached hundreds of Tanzanians by providing them with legal education and advice especially to those living in urban as well as rural areas. Since we launched this product we have reached more than 8000 people who have downloaded and used our application. Once we have enough funds to deploy massive campaigns and marketing strategies, In the next one year we expect to reach more than 200,000 Tanzanians (50% being women). Whereby in the next five years we are looking forward to have One million people in Tanzania.

Evidence of the current people we are serving

Sheria Kiganjani has reached thousands of Tanzanians in a period of six month, we are looking forward to scale all over Tanzania and scale to other African countries by providing them with legal education and advice especially to those living in urban as well as rural areas. 

Within the next five years of the project (2019 – 2023) we expect to reach more than 1,000,000 Tanzanians (50% being women). Our first target will be to roll out various media campaigns, conferences, and workshops in Tanzania as well as other countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and Uganda when we expand.

My goal is to make sure that through Sheria Kiganjani i create an informed community on civic and legal rights that will always help people manage their conflicts that arise amongst themselves without necessarily resorting to judicial adjudication.

Currently Sheria Kiganjani operates in two major platforms i.e. Web-based technology, SMS technology as well as Mobile technology. The challenge we are facing is that, there is still number of people who are using feature phones. That’s why we are now in the process of acquiring fund which will help us develop and paying for the USSD technology that will forever address our challenge. 

Currently we in the process of acquiring funds which will help us develop and pay for the USSD technology that will forever address our challenge. But in the meantime we have been reaching the feature phone users via our integrated bulk SMS technology. Through our integrated bulk SMS solution, we are usually impacting people using featured phones by sending them messages on various topics or matters that are currently trending in the legal sphere.

Sheria Kiganjani team comprises of total number of seven people, and we have people with different skills for instance Advocates, IT Specialists, App & System Developer, Marketing and Business Development Manager. Having people with different skills makes us unique in the sense that everything is being done in house as we don't have to recruit e.g developer. Out of seven team members, six of them are full time staff and one is a part time staff.

Advocate Nabiry Jumanne is our project director and he heads all operational activities of this project.  Mr. Nabiry hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Laws, having worked in the Mining Industry.

Mr. Chris Bwemo is the project manager of Sheria Kiganjani project. Mr. Bwemo has a strong background in Digital Financial Services and Innovative Solutions. He has performed numerous FinTech projects specifically on the Payments Systems, Business and financial solutions in various areas. 

Mr. Mussa Kisena is responsible for all IT Developments, System maintenance and upgrades. Mussa ensure that customer access is constantly operational and manage all trouble-shooting activities. He hold Bachelor of Science Majoring in Information Technology.

Advocate Neema Magimba is our head of Legal section, she is responsible for handling all legal matters. She approve any designed Question and/or Answer before it is loaded on the system.

Dafrosa Mwita heads this unit and she is responsible for financial and human resource management and also all the matters related to administrations which are not directly handled by the PD.

Laurencia Mayilla is an advocate and head of this unit and responsible for Customer relation Management as well as all matters related to Online Chats and Calls from the Sheria Kiganjani app users. 

Legal services are usually expensive almost everywhere in the world. To tackle this Sheria Kiganjani will soon introduce the subscription model of our services. These services are divided in two major parts; first one is a subscription model which is divided into three segments Daily Subscription, Weekly subscription and Monthly subscription; When a person subscribe himself in any of these services, he / she will be able to talk and chat with our advcates. The second model is fee for services whereby a person will be able to pay for specific set of services e.g. paying for lease or sales agreement etc. Since majority of Tanzanians are still poor, we have introduced a very minimal (less than $ 2) fee to all of our services so that all of our users found in the bottom of the pyramid can afford them.  

To introduce fee for services in our product as well as our subscription model which is divided into three segments Daily Subscription, Weekly subscription and Monthly subscription; When a person subscribe himself in any of these services, he / she will be able to talk and chat with our advocates. This will create financial sustainability for our product. 

Currently our solutions, operate in two major platforms i.e. Web based platform as well as Android application, with these two platforms we have reached more than 8000 people in the period of six month though they are some challenges we face especially on reaching people who are using feature phones (GSM phones). When Sheria Kiganjani is selected by solve, we intend to invest it in the USSD development,acquire our own Call Center as well as pay for our toll free customer care number which will bring us more closer to the people on the ground. We are also looking forward to partner with other local and international NGOs in making sure that we reach were we are going.

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Since we are operating in two major platforms i.e. Web based platform as well as Android application and we have managed to reach more than 7000 people in the period of six month. When Sheria Kiganjani is selected in the community-driven innovation, we intend to invest it in the USSD development,acquire our own Call Center as well as pay for our toll free customer care number which will bring us more closer to the people on the ground. We are also looking forward to partner with other local and international NGOs in making sure that we reach were we are going.

Since we are operating in two major platforms i.e. Web based platform as well as Android application and we have managed to reach more than 7000 people in the period of six month. When Sheria Kiganjani is selected in the women prize, we intend to invest it in the USSD development,acquire our own Call Center as well as pay for our toll free customer care number which will bring us more closer to the people on the ground. We are also looking forward to partner with other local and international NGOs in making sure that we reach were we are going.