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Kiota — Mzansi Connect Wallet

Living the strategy. Living the values.

How one project delivers against so many of our objectives — from the AI/FinTech pivot to the people we set out to reach.

OpsCom Strategy Session · July 2026

The moment: our pilot is live in Delft

Not a plan — a live wallet. Real people in a Cape Town township are sending money, buying from local merchants, and inviting their neighbours in.

1,000+
signed up and counting (1,094 as of 28 Jul, still ~20/day)
98%
joined via referral from an existing member — real word-of-mouth
R86.7k
moved by members in 607 peer-to-peer transfers

“We are building something people really need. Onboarding the first leaders and merchants… if a business is based on good values, we build something truly unique in these turbulent times.”

— Mzansi Connect, on launch

Why OpsCom asked me to talk about this

Kiota lands squarely against two sets of objectives at once — the FY2025 strategy and who we say we are.

The FY2025 Strategy

Objective 3 — the AI/FinTech offering pivot
Our medium-term bet. Kiota is the live proof.
Objective 1 — SA market & payments vertical
A flagship SA/Africa payments case study.

Who We Are

People Matter
Reaching people the formal system leaves behind.
Software that matters
Transparency, community, real impact.
Strategy · Objective 3

The AI/FinTech pivot — Kiota is the live proof

From the strategy: “Proactively pilot high-margin new capability – AI/FinTech” and stand up a “FinTech Practice: custom application build for Fintechs and FS companies.”

1

A live fintech build

A working wallet — P2P payments, merchant purchases, KYC — in production.

2

AI inside the product

An LLM chat/triage agent runs onboarding and servicing over WhatsApp.

3

A productised Practice

The multi-tenant white-label platform shipped this window — Mzansi Connect runs on it as its own brand. Repeatable, not a one-off.

From pilot to Practice: the strategy line items it lights up

Kiota isn’t just ‘on strategy’ in spirit — it directly advances specific FY2025 line items.

3.1
Pilot high-margin new capability
A real client, in production — the definition of the objective, achieved.
3.1.2
AI Agent / Service framework (‘DAN’)
The chat/triage agent is exactly this framework, running live.
3.4
Stand up a FinTech Practice
Multi-tenant white-label platform = the reusable template for the offering.
1.3.3
Develop the Payments vertical
A stronger SA/Africa case study to sit alongside PayU and OM Money.
Value · People Matter

Reaching the people the system leaves out

“Our people are at the heart of what we do.” Kiota turns that value outward — and the community is spreading it themselves.

Financial inclusion

A wallet for the unbanked — ‘the poorest of the poor’, in the townships.

Onboarding by chat

KYC over WhatsApp — no branch, no app-store barrier, no paperwork.

Grown from within

98% of members were invited by a neighbour — the community owns the growth.

Software that matters — transparency & community

“It’s almost an open-source business — margins are clear for all to see. Every product pricing build is visible to all!”

This is our Brand Voice made real: honest, simple, transparent. A values-led business model, not values on a poster.

— Mzansi Connect
Transparent by design
Pricing and margins visible to everyone — trust built into the product.
Rides real infrastructure
Reaches users over community-owned WiFi (25 stations, ~148k hits/day). Inclusion needs connectivity — Delft has it.
A story worth telling
Exactly the impact narrative that fuels our brand, recruitment and pipeline.

And it proves what we can do

Beyond the objectives, Kiota is evidence of Personal Excellence in delivery.

End-to-end

Wallet, P2P payments, merchant tools, AI servicing and a white-label platform — integrated and shipped.

Real-world hard

KYC, compliance and low-connectivity users — solved, not simplified away.

Product-market fit

98% referral growth to 1,000+ users says people actually want it.

Let’s go build history together

The clients said it better than any strategy doc could:

“On behalf of the Delft community, thank you for believing in a life-changing solution for the poorest of the poor across South Africa… our prayer is that this becomes the start of a movement — where the world will one day hear our story and see what we built from the townships.”

— Charles, Mzansi Connect

“Thanks everyone involved for the contribution — past, present and future. Surely if a business is based on good values, we build something truly unique. Wowzer!!!! Thanks Saratoga in particular!!”

Strategy and values, in one project.

Note: this is Delft in Cape Town (Voorbrug township), not the Netherlands — so it counts toward SA-growth and offering objectives, not international expansion. Pilot metrics are prod data as of 28 Jul 2026.