What is the name of your organization?
Jahazii, Inc.
What is the name of your solution?
Jahazii
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Jahazii provides African workers with instant access to earned wages, reducing reliance on predatory loans and financial stress.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Nairobi, Kenya
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Kenya
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Over 260 million formal workers across Africa live paycheck to paycheck and have limited access to affordable credit between pay cycles. In Kenya alone, 65% of formal employees experience financial stress before payday, often turning to predatory digital lenders charging up to 400% APR. This leads to a cycle of debt, decreased productivity, absenteeism, and mental health challenges.
The problem is urgent and systemic: wage disbursement lags behind real-time expenses. Inflation, informal lending, and rising living costs exacerbate this mismatch. Solving this has ripple effects on household resilience, workplace productivity, and financial inclusion—especially for women, who are more likely to manage household budgets.
What is your solution?
Jahazii is a fintech platform that gives African workers instant access to their earned wages before payday. We partner with employers to offer a zero-cost setup where employees can withdraw a portion of their salary anytime via USSD on any mobile phone.
Our system integrates with employer payrolls to track work and earnings in real time. When an employee requests a withdrawal, funds are instantly disbursed to their mobile money wallet. At the end of the month, we collect the full salary from the employer and reconcile advances.
Unlike traditional loans, Jahazii doesn’t charge interest, require collateral, or use credit scores. We underwrite employers, not employees, eliminating default risk and expanding access.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Jahazii serves Kenya’s low- and middle-income employees earning $150–$300 per month in sectors like manufacturing and large scale agriculture. These workers are paid monthly but face frequent cash shortfalls due to the mismatch between income and real-time expenses.
A typical monthly budget for a worker earning $200 barely enables them to cover the expenses (rent, food, transport) of a 2-4 person household, often leaving monthly shortfalls, even before unexpected expenses or debt repayments.
With no savings buffer and limited access to affordable credit, many rely on predatory mobile lenders to survive mid-month. Jahazii addresses this gap by enabling workers to access their earned wages instantly, avoiding high-interest loans and reducing financial stress.
