‘Tech is an inevitable evolution’

Dar es Salaam. Nothing beats having a serious discussion about the balance of things that affect the future of youth, the economy, and everything in between with a true trailblazer and one of Tanzania’s few female tech entrepreneurs.

While I may sound like a groupie, allow me to point out that this is not about me. Let me introduce you to Ms. Faith Pella.

Faith is the CEO of Y9, a fintech firm with the drive and mandate to meaningfully digitise and include every individual in the tech space to solve problems.

She is also the co-founder of KilimoFresh, a Tanzanian-based agri-fintech B2B2C marketplace platform for fresh food produce distribution that connects smallholder farmers and buyers.

Having been in the tech space for over 10 years in various countries, most recently Nigeria, Faith has amassed global experience in her line of work.

She has an education background in finance and is a technology enthusiast. She took these two and forged a path for herself into the space she now occupies. She is the embodiment of “try and try again” until you find something that works for you.

“My journey in tech started in 2009. I always thought I’d be a doctor but realised quickly that it wasn’t for me for so many reasons. So I dropped that out, and the closest thing I could do was accounting and finance, so I pursued that degree,” she says.

“I then went on to work as an accountant, but again, that was not for me, nor was auditing. I then found this company, which initially was a Kenyan-Nigerian company that invested in technology.”

This company’s founders both had backgrounds in different areas of technology, and the company worked to develop websites and email hosting platforms, amongst others. They then moved into the mobile technology space, and in Tanzania, they began by doing mobile value-added services for telcos, and their market entry into the country was through Airtel.

“When I was introduced to the company then, it was a very new thing on the market. I started my career in tech through some of their services, like the caller tunes, ringtones, and infomatic messages,” she narrates.

“The beauty about it was that it was a very visionary company founded by youth then (15 years ago), and here, I started working with a team of technology guys who would convert music, for example, into small bits and put it in the back end for it to become a ringtone or caller back tune, among other things.”

“In two to three years of being in that space, mobile money started coming up fast, and there was an introduction to mobile banking. The company then, as a fintech startup, ventured into providing mobile banking and mobile payment solutions,” says Faith.

From there, everything just grew, making it easier to do everything from the comfort of your home.

This journey was the start of Faith’s tech journey as she began getting involved in project after project that resulted in both social and economic impact while still leveraging technology and innovation.

Social and economic impact

“Growing up, we used to write letters or go to Kamata to collect money from our parents or through EMS, but now, everything is so different, and communication is an sms or call away. This transformation has shown just how much social and economic impact technology has had in the lives of Africans,” Faith shares.

Access to the internet is quite possibly the biggest infrastructure there is. While physical roads and infrastructure are still necessary on account of humans being social creatures, access to the internet has brought connectivity to so many and turned the once inaccessible globe into one big village.

Information is no longer a luxury. It is a basic right because of the way technology has grown.

This means that every digitised service that results in access to a product is beneficial end-to-end, from those who may be the least exposed and most disadvantaged all the way to first-world communities.

The question then becomes, “How can you use your area of technology to achieve the greatest impact in your community?”

“Take the fishermen on the peninsula,” she says, pointing to docked fishing boats in the ocean. “What aspect of technology do you think will have the most positive impact on their lives?”

“Their needs are not the same as mine or yours. While we may be happy with how exposed we are, the levels of exposure vary from one person to the next,” she explains. “These fishermen need technology that helps them keep track of weather changes to avoid unnecessary risks in the storm and coming back empty-handed.”

It is solutions like these that Tanzania should look to attain. Technology should be developed to include everyone in the community.

Policies, frameworks, and STEAM

However, as the world continues to transition, a lot needs to be done in terms of policies and frameworks to aid in the evolution.

“I agree that a lot can be done in terms of policies and frameworks to create the necessary guidelines and support, but an equal share should come from the tech communities, the developers, mechanics, and those in this space who thrive in technology,” she explains.

Eventually, adapting policies and regulations, all the way from the grassroots, will go a long way to tip the scales to a better exposed to and technologically conversant community.

A very vivid example is the explosion of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM).

“With the serious evolution in technology, children are exposed to technology from a very young age, yet when we look at the curriculum offered to them in school, kids are still taught to draw the big desktops and floppy discs, and this creates a very big gap in education,” Faith explains.

“I can see STEAM everywhere. I look at my daughter and I always think she can be anything: an artist, musician, doctor, coder, gamer, or even a teacher, but because of the tech evolution, everything has, to a certain degree, an element of STEAM.”

According to Faith, a lot of innovation takes place, and a good example she gave was Masoud Kipanya’s electric car, the reception it got, and the deafening silence that ensued.

“I was so proud when I saw his car, but I know it takes a lot for that car to be on the road, to be replicated, and even for him to get a partnership to support his innovation,” she says.

“This is where policies can come in to embrace and help the growth.”

Technology in Tanzania has a lot to do with willingness to embrace because the strengths are already there.

“I wish that there would be ministries for startups and innovations that are champions of this. The ministries present in Tanzania—youth, education, and ICT—should work together because these things go hand-in-hand,” Faith explained.

This is necessary in building the foundation for sustainable technology and have in place systemic support for technology.

“However, we are humans, and we are limited by a lot of things. Technology grows exponentially, such that you are able to do one thing in Tanzania and it scales to millions, and so even the regulators and the government need to get to a place where they are able to understand these advances and be able to make regulations and policies around them, and eventually, adopt,” Faith explains.

It is a progressive learning process, and unlike other sectors, technology is flexible enough to allow a leapfrog from one point to another because of its engaging nature.

Consumers did not need to go to school to learn how to use M-Pesa or Tigo-Pesa; they adapted, and this is an example of what inclusive technology can accomplish.

Tanzania still has a long way to go in terms of expanding its tech space. However, for technology to touch and benefit the lives of everyone, in the spirit of inclusion, it is very important that we step out of our comfort zones and ask the tough questions.

When we are able to confront the state we are in and acknowledge the areas in which we need change, only then can transformation begin. Everyone has a role to play, and tech inclusion has been Faith Pella’s driving factor as she continues to build an empire that aims to touch the lowest of lives.