Pan-African Payments technology company, Cellulant, has announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water, and Western Water. This partnership will allow customers in the province to conveniently pay their water bills with their preferred mobile money and selected bank accounts (Standard Chartered Bank, Zambia National Building Society and Natsave).
With the partnership, customers will be able to pay their water bills through Tingg. Since first partnering with Mulonga and Nkana Water 3 years ago, all the water utility companies in Northern Zambia have jumped on board and experienced exponential growth in digital payments. Additionally, Tingg by Cellulant processed over K11 million since going live.
Digitising the payment collection process unlocks access to efficient and more affordable water services for thousands of Zambians by creating a virtuous cycle of payment and service improvement. Ultimately, when customers are enabled to pay easily and have a good customer experience, their willingness to pay on time and consistently increases substantially. In turn, the water utility companies experience reduced costs in collections and increased revenue, increasing their ability to upgrade services, invest in innovation and extend their network.
“Through the years, we have built a payments platform that seeks to solve issues faced by businesses and their consumers. Partnerships such as this are critical in ensuring that we deliver the best possible digital payment service in Zambia. The vertical of water utility companies is particularly critical because of the need to improve the collection efficiency for thousands of Zambians,” said Country Manager for Cellulant Zambia, Mr. Gilbert Lungu speaking at the partnership launch event in Kitwe.
Speaking at the same event, Minister of Water Development and Sanitation, Honourable Mike Mposha, commended Cellulant for bridging the digital payment gap and was delighted to note that the water utility companies are migrating to technologies that will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in revenue collection.
“I wish to take this opportunity to urge the utility companies to utilise technologies and innovations that will bring about revenue generation efficiency and help improve the financial viability of water utility companies. Revenue collection has been a challenge, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic; therefore, digital services provide a solution for decongesting payment points for water utility companies whilst arresting the spread of Covid-19,” stated Honourable Mike Mposha, Minister of Water Development and Sanitation.
Over 300 000 customers are set to benefit from the partnership and can now easily pay their water bills on Tingg. Tingg is a payment gateway provided by Cellulant that gives businesses and their end-consumers a single unified payment experience.
