Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / Empowering Digital and Financial Literacy in East Africa

Transcript

Empowering Digital and Financial Literacy in East Africa · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

• 0:35
  Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Chatting
• 0:38
  with the Experts TV show.
• 0:41
  I am the host Paula Okonneh, and every week I bring to you amazing women,
• 0:48
  well, mainly women that have had a few men, and these women are from
• 0:54
  Africa, the Caribbean and the Diaspora.
• 0:58
  The mission of this show is that at the end of the show, you, my viewers and
• 1:04
  listeners, because I make this a podcast as well, would have gained something.
• 1:09
  You would have been inspired by my guest, educated by my
• 1:15
  guest, or empowered by my guest.
• 1:22
  Today we'll be talking about the conversation with, or I'm
• 1:27
  going to be having a conversation with a tech startup co founder.
• 1:33
  She is from Kenya.
• 1:36
  And I'll tell you a little bit about her before I ask her to introduce herself.
• 1:40
  She is an entrepreneur shaping the future of East Africa by redefining
• 1:46
  the boundaries of tech entrepreneurship with the purpose and passion of
• 1:54
  developing innovative solutions, which in turn will create a meaningful and
• 1:59
  lasting impact on digital literacy.
• 2:06
  Her name is Leah Kanyi.
• 2:09
  And she will be joining me in a few minutes.
• 2:16
  Welcome, Leah, to Chatting with the Experts.
• 2:22
  Hello.
• 2:22
  Hi.
• 2:23
  Hello, Paula.
• 2:24
  Hi, everyone.
• 2:25
  My name is Leah Kanyi.
• 2:27
  Yes, the girl from East Africa.
• 2:30
  I'm very honored to be here on your podcast.
• 2:33
  Thank you for having me.
• 2:35
  Absolutely.
• 2:36
  I was so thrilled when I spoke with you and I realized that there's so much
• 2:41
  happening in this part of the world, East Africa, that we don't probably know about.
• 2:47
  And so that's one of the things that you were going to talk about,
• 2:50
  like, for example, what inspired you to be part of a tech startup?
• 2:57
  I would say since I was a young girl, I definitely wanted to take
• 3:01
  the entrepreneurship route, but I did not have a clear idea of
• 3:06
  what that would be when I grow up.
• 3:08
  When I was in university pursuing my degree in entrepreneurship, I wanted
• 3:13
  to see what opportunities there are in terms of how we can use tech, in order
• 3:18
  to solve solution, solve problems in our communities that can be Innovative
• 3:22
  solutions that will be able to last and make an impact in our society.
• 3:26
  So in the long run, I was not a tech person, but I was able to look for
• 3:30
  people who knew about tech, and I got introduced to the world of tech in 2018.
• 3:35
  And I had my first startup then, it was a food delivery
• 3:38
  companies for mobile application.
• 3:40
  I had a business partner and we did that for about two years and
• 3:43
  we learned a lot about, you know, working with tech and finding the
• 3:46
  right tech for the right market.
• 3:49
  And now fast forward in 2023 and 2024, I'm now working on another tech solution
• 3:55
  in financial literacy across East Africa.
• 3:58
  So my inspiration is just being, I'm wanting to see problems being solved
• 4:02
  in a way that is innovative, that is also making an impact in our society.
• 4:07
  Fabulous.
• 4:09
  I love it.
• 4:11
  I really do.
• 4:12
  And so you said this is your second startup, correct?
• 4:16
  Yes, this is my second startup.
• 4:19
  So before we talk about this second startup, tell me about the first.
• 4:23
  Okay.
• 4:24
  So the very first one started in a way that was actually kind of
• 4:27
  funny because the university I attended was very international.
• 4:32
  So we had people from all over the world and most of them would live in
• 4:36
  this hostels inside the schools had a craving for food that they would
• 4:40
  have made from back in their homes.
• 4:42
  So when we are having different conversations with people, they
• 4:45
  say, they mentioned that they would love to have homemade food.
• 4:49
  And at the time I was, I had a passion for making food myself.
• 4:52
  So I started with, you know, making a friend, a plate of food,
• 4:55
  and then they recommended me.
• 4:57
  And then my friend and I decided to start like homemade cuisine,
• 5:00
  kind of like a business.
• 5:02
  And when we talked to one of our entrepreneurship lecturers, he told
• 5:05
  us that there was potential to expand it outside of just our university.
• 5:09
  And we found a way in which we, you know, found a tech solution and
• 5:13
  build a mobile application in order to connect people with homemade food
• 5:18
  from their international cuisine, their platters, the people they know, and
• 5:22
  we found Ethiopian cuisines, Nigerian cuisines, Jamaican cuisines, Asian
• 5:27
  cuisines, like Chinese and Indian.
• 5:30
  And so all these, all these cuisines that were need people had craving
• 5:34
  for, we put them on our platform.
• 5:36
  And by the time we were building the tech, we would, myself and my
• 5:40
  business partner were not tech experts.
• 5:42
  So we went for a hunt and we found a tech person and we collaborated
• 5:46
  and we were able to build a mobile application and we called it.
• 5:49
  It's called Loci Foods, and Loci was L O C I, which is like, a point bringing all
• 5:54
  locations in one point, so bringing all the international foods into one point.
• 5:58
  So, yeah, it started from an idea of cooking for one person and eventually
• 6:01
  having a mobile application connecting different cuisines in Kenya to other
• 6:06
  international students within the country.
• 6:09
  So that was the idea behind the first startup.
• 6:12
  Wow.
• 6:14
  You know, when you talked about that, well, first of all, congratulations on
• 6:17
  that, because that's how innovation, you were solving a problem.
• 6:20
  You noticed people were missing their cuisine and you're like,
• 6:23
  what can I do about that?
• 6:26
  I thought you meant local cuisine, but you guys were international.
• 6:30
  Yeah, I mean, the environment allowed us to think broad because we interacted
• 6:35
  with people from all over the world and we wanted to see how we can be
• 6:38
  able to solve that problem effectively.
• 6:40
  And to my surprise, I found out there was so many international restaurants in the
• 6:44
  country that I didn't know myself until that problem came about and it opened
• 6:48
  to this new possibility of thinking just outside my local food and now interacting
• 6:53
  with all these other international communities, especially in Nairobi.
• 6:58
  Fantastic.
• 6:59
  So what happened to that?
• 7:00
  I'm just curious.
• 7:01
  What happened to that business?
• 7:02
  Well,
• 7:02
  So the reason why we did not pursue it completely was
• 7:08
  because the pandemic happened.
• 7:10
  And as much as we want to blame the pandemic, it was also because we did not
• 7:14
  take the opportunity that the pandemic brought in terms of how technology
• 7:19
  worked was adopted quickly, especially to small businesses, and when people
• 7:23
  were at home, they could order food.
• 7:25
  But my business partner and I decided to close shop instead of
• 7:28
  taking that time to market ourself well and improve on the technology.
• 7:33
  So by the time the pandemic was kind of dying down, there were
• 7:37
  other platforms that came about and the competition was very high.
• 7:40
  So we did not pursue that idea further, but it did give us enough
• 7:45
  experience and expertise to be confident to not be able to open another
• 7:50
  startup like the one I'm doing now.
• 7:52
  That's what I was about to say to you.
• 7:54
  No, nothing is ever wasted.
• 7:56
  The fact that you tried that, it was an idea, whatever you learned from that,
• 8:01
  as short as it may have been; you could carry it on into your next business,
• 8:05
  which is what you said you're doing now.
• 8:08
  Yes.
• 8:09
  So definitely one of the things I've learned of doing my entrepreneurship
• 8:12
  journey is to always fail forward.
• 8:14
  So regardless of whether the business fails or succeed, the certain lessons
• 8:18
  that you will always learn that will be able to help you carry on to become
• 8:22
  a better entrepreneur, to not make the same mistakes and also to move faster
• 8:26
  and to see opportunities and grab them when they're still there and still ripe.
• 8:31
  Yeah, I take my hat off to you.
• 8:34
  I'm so proud of you.
• 8:35
  So now with this second venture, how did you come about this one now?
• 8:39
  Because the first one, okay, you've told us what happened.
• 8:41
  What happened next?
• 8:43
  Yes.
• 8:44
  So this one came about because a friend of mine was working on a
• 8:48
  solution for his mother, who is a small business owner in Tanzania.
• 8:53
  She has had the same business for over 10 to 15 years and one of the problems
• 8:59
  she was facing was getting financial growth in a way that she was able to
• 9:04
  keep track of those finances over the years and also being able to go to
• 9:08
  the bank to ask for like loans get she doesn't have a good credit score
• 9:12
  because in that sense, she hasn't had good record keeping for her business.
• 9:16
  So this business partner saw the way the mom was struggling in terms
• 9:19
  of bookkeeping for her business.
• 9:21
  And it wasn't just her business.
• 9:22
  It was a lot of small businesses in the area.
• 9:26
  So he thought of a business idea in terms of mobile applications
• 9:30
  that the mom could use.
• 9:31
  Something that was very simple.
• 9:33
  And so he talked to me about the idea around how we could make it work in
• 9:40
  terms of, cause there's so many solutions that exist in terms of bookkeeping,
• 9:43
  but most of them are international.
• 9:46
  Especially cause bookkeeping is in line with accounting.
• 9:49
  So most of them are very technical and.
• 9:52
  The mom tried them, but she wanted something simple.
• 9:55
  So we decided to come up with something very simple for the East African market.
• 9:59
  And one of the value we bring on board is that we have the local
• 10:03
  languages as part of the mobiles.
• 10:06
  So like local languages would be from Swahili, Kinyarwanda,
• 10:10
  having French as well.
• 10:12
  And also having very simple accounting knowledge to use the applications.
• 10:17
  So the idea came about, and that was about last year.
• 10:21
  And then along the way we applied for different programs in which we
• 10:24
  got into one program with Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda.
• 10:29
  So that's what's taken us to Rwanda, so we were able to pursue that idea
• 10:34
  from Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
• 10:38
  Still smiling because I am so impressed by your bravery, your
• 10:42
  ability to run with an idea.
• 10:44
  I mean, to start up any business is difficult and then to be young and
• 10:49
  decided, yep, I'm going to go ahead with it is even more commendable.
• 10:54
  Wow.
• 10:56
  Yeah.
• 10:56
  So now what's the name of this business?
• 11:00
  Yes, the name of the business is Daftari.
• 11:03
  So Daftari actually means a book.
• 11:06
  It means a book in Swahili.
• 11:08
  And our name, we decided to come up with an acronym having a wordplay of the name.
• 11:13
  So it's DFTR, but it is said as Daftari, which means a book.
• 11:17
  So when you think about bookkeeping, it means Daftari in Swahili.
• 11:21
  And one of our slogans, a common slogan that is said in terms of bookkeeping
• 11:26
  is meaning if you do not keep record of all your resources or assets, then
• 11:34
  all your resources will disappear.
• 11:36
  So for us is to encourage people to keep records of those small
• 11:40
  transactions, especially in business, keep track of your assets and all your
• 11:43
  resources so that your wealth doesn't disappear without your knowledge.
• 11:49
  Love it.
• 11:50
  So something apart from financial literacy, you're also doing
• 11:54
  digital literacy, correct?
• 11:56
  Yes.
• 11:57
  Tell me more about that.
• 11:59
  So with digital literacy goes back to the same story of my business partner's mom
• 12:05
  who has a very nice smartphone because she works hard and she makes good money.
• 12:09
  She can afford a good smartphone, but she doesn't use this smartphone to benefit
• 12:14
  her or to add value to her business.
• 12:16
  So she will end up just using the phone for maybe calling,
• 12:20
  texting, all these basic things.
• 12:22
  And she doesn't use the same mobile phone to like I said, add value to her business.
• 12:27
  So all these resources are available at the palm of her hands,
• 12:30
  but she thinks it's too techie.
• 12:32
  It's too complicated.
• 12:34
  So now it's us, kind of, bridging that gap and letting people see that
• 12:38
  this tech you have on your hand can actually help you grow your business,
• 12:43
  whether it's marketing, whether it's bookkeeping, whether it's looking
• 12:46
  for people to come work with you.
• 12:48
  There's so many ways people are not using their hand gadgets
• 12:52
  to improve their business.
• 12:53
  So the digital literacy In East Africa, I would say is high.
• 12:58
  East Africa, there's a huge penetration of technology.
• 13:01
  There's internet, even back in my village, people are using phones all the time.
• 13:06
  Mobile money is a big thing.
• 13:08
  So people are aware of the tech that is available, but now how to use the tech
• 13:12
  to better their business, to better their life is the gap that is missing.
• 13:16
  And so that's the thing that we're diving into in terms of solving that
• 13:20
  digital literacy in East Africa.
• 13:23
  Wow.
• 13:24
  I'm still blown away.
• 13:26
  But what I do love is that you see you all, both of you, you and your
• 13:31
  business partner, you keep seeing problems and finding solutions
• 13:35
  because that's how businesses exist.
• 13:37
  We exist to solve a problem.
• 13:40
  Yes.
• 13:41
  So now with the digital literacy, does it expand to all age
• 13:45
  groups or is it mainly limited?
• 13:47
  I say this from me, I'm a baby boomer, and I find a lot of women in
• 13:53
  particular, and men too, they believe that the digital age is really for...
• 13:58
  they keep saying they're young people.
• 13:59
  So they have a smartphone, as you say, and they don't utilize it to the maximum.
• 14:03
  They don't maximize the usage of it.
• 14:05
  It's a smartphone and they use it for basic things, calling,
• 14:09
  checking the text messages, but there's so much more they can do.
• 14:13
  And also the norm is among my age group, so they give it to the young people.
• 14:18
  They can figure it out instead of even making an effort.
• 14:21
  So for you to take that upon yourself, for both of you to take that upon yourself to
• 14:25
  say, we are also apart from the financial literacy, we're also going to delve
• 14:29
  into digital literacy is commendable.
• 14:33
  Yeah.
• 14:35
  So, from what I'm seeing or hearing from you, both businesses
• 14:38
  are intertwined with each other.
• 14:40
  The financial and the digital literacy I find, are intertwined, correct?
• 14:45
  Yes, they are intertwined.
• 14:46
  So with the digital literacy, yes, you're right.
• 14:50
  There's a group of people, I would say from like the ages of 45 and above who
• 14:56
  have put, you know, like technology as a thing for the young people.
• 15:00
  While they could be using it to benefit their life.
• 15:03
  I mean, I'm impressed because you're out here doing something with tech.
• 15:06
  You're doing your own edits.
• 15:08
  These are things that not every person at a certain age would think is
• 15:11
  something that they are capable of doing.
• 15:14
  So there's like a level of confidence, a level of knowing that they're also
• 15:18
  should be good at using tech to solve something in their businesses or in
• 15:22
  their life or use tech to grow themselves and even things like online learning.
• 15:26
  Some people think it's too complicated to do that.
• 15:29
  So yeah, we want to make sure that we mix both financial literacy and digital
• 15:35
  literacy because they go hand in hand because so many startups are coming up
• 15:40
  with this brilliant, innovative solutions, but they do not end up solving the problem
• 15:44
  for this group of people because they do not use the technology the same way
• 15:48
  that a certain group of people would.
• 15:50
  So our focus is making sure that there's no one who's going to be left behind
• 15:54
  when they come to using our solution.
• 15:56
  We want to be inclusive.
• 15:58
  And like you say, it's mostly women.
• 16:00
  So our target in terms of when we're penetrating the market is working with
• 16:04
  women of a certain age, women who have been in business for many years, women
• 16:08
  who want to grow, women who have a certain level of interest in terms of
• 16:12
  digital literacy, and they're afraid or they do not feel confident enough to use
• 16:16
  the tech that they have to know their businesses better or use it as a solution.
• 16:21
  So yeah, definitely include everyone.
• 16:23
  We're not leaving any age group behind.
• 16:25
  Everyone can use our solution.
• 16:26
  Like, that's how simple we want it to be in terms of our digital solution.
• 16:31
  How do you go about this?
• 16:32
  Are you, I know it's community based.
• 16:34
  I heard that.
• 16:35
  I got the impression that you are going out into the community.
• 16:38
  You're using the local languages.
• 16:41
  Yeah.
• 16:41
  And what else?
• 16:44
  Are you using people who...
• 16:46
  because people do business with people who they can connect with.
• 16:49
  Either they look like them or they, we talked about the language or
• 16:53
  they have to have some commonality.
• 16:56
  So how are you guys doing this?
• 16:57
  Because I'm, again, I'm going to refer to my age group tends to
• 17:01
  say, Oh, they're just too young.
• 17:02
  Let them just solve that themselves.
• 17:04
  Not realizing that we are part and parcel of, if we want to, if we want
• 17:08
  to go far, someone told me this.
• 17:10
  If you want to go fast.
• 17:12
  Do it by yourself.
• 17:13
  If you want to go far, invite other people to do it.
• 17:16
  And collaborating with the younger generation.
• 17:18
  My sister keeps saying, don't say young, say younger.
• 17:21
  So I'm going to listen to you.
• 17:23
  So collaborating with the younger generation will help all of us in the end.
• 17:27
  So how are you guys going about creating awareness and getting my age
• 17:33
  group more interested and not afraid?
• 17:36
  Because I think a lot of what I hear and see with my peers is
• 17:40
  that they're afraid of technology.
• 17:42
  So how are we breaking that down?
• 17:44
  That's a long question for just something that I should have said in two words.
• 17:48
  That's okay.
• 17:49
  I'll try to answer as much as I can.
• 17:51
  So, maybe just to have an understanding of this older group of women that
• 17:57
  we work with is that in East Africa, I don't know about the rest of
• 18:01
  the world, there's a lot of like community based activities that we do.
• 18:05
  And one of them is financial, what's the word I'm looking for?
• 18:08
  Okay.
• 18:09
  Um, like bringing finances to contributions?
• 18:13
  What's the word for...
• 18:14
  God I'm forgetting the word for it.
• 18:16
  It's yeah.
• 18:18
  Okay.
• 18:18
  So let me try.
• 18:19
  Okay.
• 18:19
  So like people investing?
• 18:21
  Yeah.
• 18:22
  So there's the pooling money.
• 18:24
  Yeah.
• 18:24
  Financial pooling of like finances.
• 18:26
  Okay.
• 18:27
  Let me go back and answer that.
• 18:28
  Okay, so in this part of the world in East Africa, there's a lot
• 18:32
  of community based activities, and one of them is in finances.
• 18:37
  People do come together and pool their finances so that they could invest
• 18:41
  or support one another to pay school fees or support someone who's sick.
• 18:45
  And there's something called Chama, which is like a corporative group that
• 18:49
  is usually women led group activities where they lend money to each other.
• 18:55
  They pull money to invest in different businesses, ideas, you
• 18:58
  know, something to build a community.
• 19:00
  And when they do it, there's usually someone in charge of those finances.
• 19:04
  And usually it's someone who's a bit more learned, someone like a
• 19:07
  teacher or a pastor's wife, someone who they deem to handle finances
• 19:12
  in a more secure and safe way.
• 19:14
  Someone was a bit of digital literacy.
• 19:16
  So these many groups come together and they meet like on
• 19:19
  a weekly and a monthly basis.
• 19:21
  And usually there's someone who's always in charge of the finances.
• 19:24
  So these women would instead do not keep track of their financial
• 19:28
  records correctly, or they don't know how to go about it.
• 19:31
  So they end up misplacing certain books or misplacing all these different records.
• 19:36
  So the way we come in or the way we work with this women is sitting down with them
• 19:40
  because they already have the knowledge of how to run these groups, these
• 19:43
  communities of bringing finances together.
• 19:45
  And now using that information, we bring the tech and we educate them
• 19:49
  on how they can simplify that whole process where they all have access to
• 19:54
  their financial records and they can keep track of that information for the
• 19:57
  past 10 years, for the past five years.
• 20:00
  And so the biggest thing is working with the treasurer first, the treasurer of
• 20:04
  the group, and then now working with a whole group of women, and there's
• 20:07
  so many different groups like this in Kenya, in Tanzania, in Rwanda.
• 20:12
  And so when we say we're working community based workers in that sense, because the
• 20:16
  minute we educate one woman, we've been able to educate a whole community because
• 20:20
  they're able to go back and pour that same information to other people around them.
• 20:26
  I like to be speechless.
• 20:28
  I'm in awe of you.
• 20:29
  I'm in awe of what you guys are doing.
• 20:32
  So why Rwanda?
• 20:33
  Why Tanzania?
• 20:35
  Why Kenya?
• 20:36
  Why not like Uganda?
• 20:38
  It's all from surrounding countries.
• 20:42
  I guess it's easier to start where you feel a bit more comfortable or
• 20:46
  where you feel like it's easier to penetrate the market, especially for me.
• 20:50
  Kenya is home.
• 20:51
  Tanzania is right down the border.
• 20:53
  So language barrier is another thing.
• 20:55
  I don't feel like I'm limited to language because if I went to a country where
• 20:58
  I wasn't able to communicate, then that would be a whole other ballgame.
• 21:02
  And also understanding how things work, how the community works.
• 21:06
  It makes things easier when you're marketing yourself and you're trying
• 21:10
  to push an idea and then Rwanda, I mean, Rwanda is where we want to say
• 21:14
  we've been able to grow our idea because Rwanda has this support for startups.
• 21:19
  The government is working closely with upcoming startup to support them.
• 21:23
  So being able to set base there for us has been a perfect place to grow
• 21:27
  our business and have a place where we can say we're growing our business.
• 21:30
  Sorry, Rwanda is a place where I can say we were able to work with people closely
• 21:37
  and also language barrier isn't a thing.
• 21:39
  So working with that within East Africa is perfect for us because
• 21:43
  it's where our problem is.
• 21:45
  We're able to relate with the problem and come up with solutions that are directly
• 21:50
  going to benefit people that we know and benefit the people in our community.
• 21:54
  So our dream is to be able to start from home and then grow
• 21:57
  to all these other countries.
• 21:59
  We're not limiting ourselves.
• 22:00
  We're just starting from home.
• 22:02
  Not limiting yourself, just starting from home, yeah.
• 22:05
  That's a good place to start.
• 22:06
  As you said, the language and you're comfortable there and you're addressing
• 22:11
  the need that you know about.
• 22:13
  As opposed to going into a new area where there's so many
• 22:17
  more unknowns and moving parts.
• 22:21
  Yeah.
• 22:21
  So I know you have told me repeatedly that you're not into tech.
• 22:25
  So how do you go about finding tech partners?
• 22:29
  Right.
• 22:30
  So I've had a bit of experience finding tech partners.
• 22:33
  It hasn't been an easy journey, but the good thing is that there's a lot
• 22:37
  of educated tech people out here.
• 22:39
  So it's just trying to find the best fit for you.
• 22:42
  So I've had experience working with people who say they're going to
• 22:46
  deliver a certain thing and you know, one month goes by three months and
• 22:50
  you've invested your money, your time, and then it's just a let down.
• 22:54
  But then eventually through trial and error, I've finally been able
• 22:57
  to find people I can work with.
• 22:59
  And the good thing is that now I'm working with a business partner who
• 23:03
  is a tech genius or a tech person.
• 23:06
  So it has made things easier.
• 23:07
  So he comes up with all the tech ideas and I'm able to be the gap between bringing
• 23:14
  that idea into like something relatable.
• 23:16
  Because, yes, tech people are have brilliant ideas, and they're thinking
• 23:20
  of creative ways to solve solutions, but sometimes you find that the solutions
• 23:24
  they're bringing are not relatable, they're not the perfect fits, so I come
• 23:28
  in as the person who's able to understand what the need is, so when we're building
• 23:32
  a mobile application, what feature is necessary in terms of how people use
• 23:38
  the mobile applications or the software.
• 23:40
  So my thing has just been able to understand the mind of the tech person and
• 23:44
  also understand the mind of the end user.
• 23:46
  And I find myself being like the bridge between the two.
• 23:50
  And it's something that I absolutely enjoy because I really wanted to be
• 23:54
  in tech, but I was not a tech person.
• 23:55
  So now I have a front seat to how the tech works and behind the scenes of how
• 23:59
  it works and also bring it to reality.
• 24:03
  So you're getting the best of both worlds, actually.
• 24:05
  Definitely the best of both worlds.
• 24:08
  Boy, Leah, I love what you're doing right now.
• 24:12
  This is your present business.
• 24:14
  Your second tech startup that you've been a part of.
• 24:18
  What's the next thing you're thinking about?
• 24:20
  You just want to focus on where you are now and then...
• 24:24
  what's next?
• 24:25
  What I see in you is excitement.
• 24:27
  I see someone who is...
• 24:29
  you're solution solver.
• 24:30
  You look, you see a problem and you think, how do I go about
• 24:33
  and get it solved or fixed?
• 24:35
  And this is one, but I know, of course, there are others.
• 24:40
  Oh, yes, in the mind of an entrepreneur, you're always seeing so many
• 24:43
  opportunities and problems to be solved.
• 24:46
  But for now, I want to put my focus in Daftari and make sure that this
• 24:50
  is something that we're building for the right people and making
• 24:54
  sure that we can take it even bigger than what we could ever imagine.
• 24:58
  Sometimes having too many things working at the same time can be a bit exhausting.
• 25:03
  So yeah, and I've done that before.
• 25:05
  Some have failed, some have worked.
• 25:06
  But definitely right now, my focus is on Daftari to make sure that we're
• 25:10
  building a solution that actually solves something for my community, for
• 25:14
  East Africa, and of course, something that's going to bring profit because
• 25:18
  it is a business at the end of the day.
• 25:20
  Yeah, so right now that's my focus.
• 25:22
  Yeah, I love that as well.
• 25:25
  That's really great to hear because a lot of times when you see a problem
• 25:28
  you want to solve and that's what all businesses should do, but then
• 25:32
  you get so tied up with other things.
• 25:37
  It's a great idea.
• 25:40
  But there's no money.
• 25:41
  There's no profit coming.
• 25:42
  And so it goes to the wayside.
• 25:45
  So I know that you're an entrepreneur at heart, but you are also driven
• 25:51
  by seeing a need and trying to solve it and then bridging the two,
• 25:54
  bringing the tech to help solve it.
• 25:57
  We are in 2024.
• 25:58
  So technology.
• 26:00
  Is here to stay.
• 26:02
  Yeah, I mean, one thing I've learned in the past since the pandemic is that
• 26:05
  tech used to be the future, but now tech feels like it we're living in
• 26:09
  tech like tech is happening right now.
• 26:11
  So I definitely want to be at a place where I'm being able to use tech to
• 26:15
  be able to solve solutions and to be able to use it to make money as well.
• 26:19
  Because if you're not, you're not making money through tech one way or the other.
• 26:23
  You're not really using what resources there are available right now in 2024.
• 26:28
  Yeah.
• 26:29
  And looking at relevant for your community, like some of the tech things
• 26:32
  that we have, tech stuff that we have, like in North America, may not be relevant
• 26:37
  in East Africa, where you're from.
• 26:39
  So seeing the need, bridging that as well, the technology from the Western
• 26:45
  world and merging it with the emerging countries, the emerging economies
• 26:50
  is something that we really, I think about it and like the young people.
• 26:54
  This is your time.
• 26:55
  This is your time because there's so much information out there now.
• 26:59
  It's not like before in my days where you had to go to the library
• 27:02
  and you had a huge encyclopedia.
• 27:04
  Now it's all in your hands.
• 27:06
  Yeah, it's all in your hands.
• 27:08
  I don't know, this is random but have you...
• 27:10
  I don't know about, do you guys not use mobile money as much as we do
• 27:14
  here in East Africa and South Africa.
• 27:15
  No, we don't.
• 27:17
  I said, I was talking about that with my children, you know, that
• 27:21
  in some ways, I, you guys are more advanced in terms of the mobile money.
• 27:26
  People just send, what do they call it, P, point of sale, POS.
• 27:32
  I can talk from Nigeria where people just send money to each other over the phone.
• 27:36
  Within the last probably five years, we have somewhat caught up, but
• 27:40
  you guys are still way advanced.
• 27:42
  Yeah, you're more advanced with that or more comfortable doing that than we are.
• 27:50
  So in that sense, I mentioned it because like the way we use mobile money is
• 27:55
  something that's very innovative to solving a problem that's specific
• 27:59
  to our market and our community.
• 28:01
  Because first of all, when the mobile money came about, we were not big
• 28:05
  users of credit cards or debit cards.
• 28:08
  So the people who came about with this idea were trying to see what is this
• 28:12
  innovative solution we can give in terms of people transacting money or spending
• 28:16
  money without using credit cards or debit cards, all these things, or even
• 28:20
  all these online payment solutions.
• 28:22
  So, yeah, that's just one of the solutions that really inspires me to keep thinking
• 28:26
  of an innovative solution for my community and thinking that the problem we're
• 28:30
  solving here in Kenya or East Africa may not be the same problem that people are
• 28:34
  going to solve in Norway or in Colombia.
• 28:37
  So we have to think about our own problems and coming up with innovative
• 28:40
  solutions for our own problems.
• 28:43
  Absolutely.
• 28:44
  Yeah, that's the truth.
• 28:47
  So, wow, we've been talking for a while.
• 28:50
  I know that you're online.
• 28:52
  If anyone is looking to talk with you, how can they find you?
• 28:57
  Easiest way to find me is to connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 29:01
  You can find me on LinkedIn.
• 29:02
  My name is Leah Kanyi.
• 29:04
  I don't know whether you'll be able to pin it somewhere, but yeah, that's the
• 29:07
  easiest way if you want to reach out, if you have an idea, I would love to
• 29:11
  see what other people, young and old are working on, what kind of solutions
• 29:16
  they'd want to see, what kind of, you know, advice it's given to an upcoming
• 29:20
  entrepreneur because I'm still learning.
• 29:21
  I'm still young.
• 29:22
  There's so much I have to learn.
• 29:24
  And my dream is to be an international entrepreneur.
• 29:27
  Now I'm not limited to just East Africa.
• 29:30
  So reach out to me at LinkedIn, you'll be able to get me there
• 29:33
  and I'll be able to respond.
• 29:35
  International entrepreneur, we're going to add that to the list of all the
• 29:40
  things that I can describe you as young, vibrant, intelligent, that can see in you
• 29:46
  a drive to make a difference in the world.
• 29:49
  And I guess that's where the international entrepreneur comes from.
• 29:54
  But before we leave.
• 29:55
  I'm going to ask you one person who has inspired you to be who you are today.
• 30:02
  Oh, wow.
• 30:03
  I would say one person who's inspired me, her name is Professor Wangari Mathai.
• 30:09
  She has, the work she's done in our country has been amazing.
• 30:14
  She is one woman who has been able to fight for our forests.
• 30:18
  And making sure that we can we remain green in East Africa
• 30:22
  and especially in Kenya.
• 30:24
  She's a woman who was able to fight the power and fight the government
• 30:28
  for the right of the people in terms of taking care of nature.
• 30:32
  And something that she used to love saying is if you take care of nature
• 30:35
  and nature will take care of you.
• 30:37
  And this goes across all different aspects of our lives.
• 30:41
  If we take care of things that are naturally given to us by God and those
• 30:45
  things will be able to take care of you.
• 30:48
  She did pass back, I think, in 2016, but she absolutely inspired me.
• 30:52
  I've heard her book.
• 30:53
  I love the work that she did.
• 30:55
  And sometimes I think if I was to be a fighter or freedom fighter,
• 30:59
  I would probably follow her steps.
• 31:02
  But yeah, outside of just like business, she really inspires me
• 31:04
  to do good for the community and to do good things outside of yourself.
• 31:08
  Yeah,
• 31:09
  I'm sorry to hear that she passed, but obviously her spirit still lives on.
• 31:13
  It has inspired you.
• 31:14
  It has fueled you to be.
• 31:16
  I mean, I see in you a fire and she has fueled that drive in you to be the
• 31:23
  person that you are today with a zeal of not just limiting what you do to East
• 31:28
  Africa, but being able to change the world by what she has inspired you to do.
• 31:35
  I love it.
• 31:37
  Wow.
• 31:38
  Well, Leah Kanyi, did I get it right?
• 31:42
  Yes.
• 31:42
  Leah Kanyi.
• 31:44
  Hasn't she been such an amazing guest?
• 31:46
  She has inspired me now to even want to think, look around me and see what other
• 31:50
  solutions can I come up with for problems that I see and talk about all the time.
• 31:56
  And that's what this whole Chatting with the Experts is about.
• 32:00
  It's a program.
• 32:02
  It's a movement almost, in which I want to showcase women, young,
• 32:09
  middle-aged, well we don't like to say old, and more seasoned women.
• 32:14
  Season is a good word.
• 32:16
  More seasoned women to showcase all what we have learned so that at the
• 32:21
  end, anyone who looks at this will come away having learned something
• 32:25
  new, being empowered, or inspired.
• 32:30
  And for those of you who are watching this show today, if you'd like to
• 32:33
  be a guest on this show, you can reach out to me on my website,
• 32:38
  which is chattingwiththeexperts.com or, I'm also on LinkedIn.
• 32:43
  Just look for Paula Okonneh on LinkedIn.
• 32:47
  My Instagram handle is chat_experts_podcast.
• 32:54
  And these days I am on Facebook and I say that Without emphasis on
• 32:59
  Facebook, because I wasn't on Facebook.
• 33:01
  I wasn't very active on Facebook, but now I am.
• 33:05
  So thank you, Leah.
• 33:07
  Leah, you have just been amazing.
• 33:10
  Thank you for coming on to this show.
• 33:15
  Thank you so much.
• 33:15
  Thank you for having me as well.
• 33:17
  Absolute pleasure.
• 33:19
  It's been a pleasure for me as well.
• 33:21
  I've smiled the whole way throughout this interview.
• 33:24
  Thank you.