Payments business Cellulant Zambia 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 , says Cellulant, will allow customers of these utilities to conveniently pay their water bills with their preferred mobile money and selected bank accounts (Standard Chartered Bank, Zambia National Building Society and Natsave).
In remote areas of the country, customers travel long distances to pay for their water bills. Thanks to this partnership, customers will be able to pay for their water bills through Tingg, a payment gateway provided by Cellulant that gives businesses and their end consumers a single unified payment experience.
There were apparently digital payment-linked partnerships with Mulonga and Nkana Water as far back as three years ago. Since then all the water utilities in Northern Zambia are said to have jumped on board and experienced exponential growth in digital payments.
Cellulant says that this deal, which digitises 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, not just by encouraging customers to pay both consistently and on time but by lowering the costs water utility companies experience in collection.
Over 300,000 water utility customers are set to benefit from the partnership and can now easily pay their water bills on Tingg by dialling a special code.