A new financial service company bringing gamified wealth-building tools to low and middle-income earners has officially launched in Zambia.
DigMo, which is licensed by the Bank of Zambia to operate a wallet, plans to support underserved users by providing access to engaging products with incentives.
DigMo plans to directly address this gap, offering a free digital money account with a special account for users to play a ‘financial planning game’. The offerings aims to incentivise customers to begin putting money away for the future.
DigMo hopes that by giving customers the chance to win big rewards, they will gain sustainable habits. At the moment, informal planning – the acquiring of non-financial assets like livestock and highly liquid products – remains a big part of many Africans’ lives.
Recogning that the majority of financial planning services in Africa target wealthy and upper-middle-class customers, DigMo instead aims to support the large and growing segment of low and middle-income earners.
DigMo’s launch closely aligns with the government of Zambia’s recent target to accelerate financial inclusion to 85 per cent. To support this mission, the team is working closely with regulators and partners to ensure DigMo meets high security and compliance standards.
Sylvia Brune, CEO of DigMo Group, said: “We are committed to financial planning innovation for low and middle-income earners across Africa. To achieve this meaningful impact, we approach this like a game studio – where we constantly create and test many new products until we find those with an outsized impact.
“If we just take existing products and make them more affordable or accessible, it is unlikely that we can dramatically change behaviours. To succeed, we have engaged directly with users, observing and learning from them to develop DigMo.”
Encouraging long-term savings
With an initial rollout in Zambia, DigMo wallet’s first offering, ‘Save to Win’, enables users to start with small amounts – from just ZMW10 (approximately $0.37) – for the chance to win prizes of up to ZMW500,000 (approximately $18,400), with prize pools growing over time as more customers participate.
Save to Win is based on the concept of Premium Bonds, originally introduced in the UK by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, who later became Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. Brune says: “When Macmillan introduced the prize account, it initially faced opposition from his peers but successfully encouraged millions to develop healthy financial planning habits.”
By focusing on technologies enabling cost-efficient and secure account opening through partnering with an Africa-focused compliance tech provider like pawaPass, DigMo lowers its risks and reduces the costs to deliver fitting products for this group while positioning for scale.
In a move to expand its capabilities and reach, DigMo has also appointed James Chona as its new chairman, who will advise on efforts to foster growth in Zambia.
With over 25 years experience spanning telecoms, fintech, and technology, Chona joins DigMo from Zamtel, where he served as chief commercial officer. Chona will work closely with the DigMo team, and advise on DigMo in Zambia, expanding partnerships, and scaling operations to bridge the financial inclusion gap through easily accessible digital products that directly target the underserved to participate in the broader formal economy.
“Joining DigMo comes at a crucial moment for advancing financial inclusion in Zambia,” Chona also explained. “Africa’s low and middle-income earners face many challenges, from inflation and high payment fees to restrictive financial products with lock-in periods and complex terms that often deter long-term savings. DigMo is rethinking financial planning by disrupting traditional financial planning methods and focusing on African consumers’ real motivations and behaviours.”