By a Special Correspondent
With smartphone penetration in Sub Saharan Africa set to grow by 67% by 2025 buoyed by increasing internet penetration, the opportunity to lead the digital revolution, drive inclusivity and uplift people’s quality of life through technology has never been better.
Sasai, Africa’s first all-in-one super app developed by Cassava Fintech International, appears set to play a key role in leveraging that opportunity.
The app is a closed, unified ecosystem of many apps that offer a seamless, integrated and efficient experience. It brings people and businesses together to share lifestyle experiences, and it offers financial solutions and access to markets for goods and services all in one place. It therefore creates a connected Africa where, as its developers say – no African is left behind.
The most powerful feature of the Sasai app is probably its blockchain-enabled, multi-currency digital e-wallet.
This use of this disruptive technology provides secure payment services and a variety of digital payment solutions. Through Sasai’s payments portal users can safely make local and international peer-to-peer payments, consumer-to-business payments (to pay bills), business-to-consumer payments (for payroll) and business-to-business (B2B) payments – all from the convenience of a mobile device.
The payments feature allows local and international credit and debit cards to be linked to the e-wallet. The platform is also QR-code enabled, allowing users to receive coupons, scan loyalty cards, review services and execute QR-based payments at participating merchants and billers across the continent.
The app’s interactive media ecosystem of content creators, aggregators and service providers supports and empowers young and upcoming content and digital services providers to create original content and to be able to showcase and monetise it on the platform.
Its interactive media is already the largest repository of African content and services. It encompasses Sasai Watch, a video-sharing platform where users can watch a whole library of videos managed in albums. It also includes Sasai Podcast, an audio-sharing platform covering a wide range of audio genres, including comedy, education, health and fitness, business and more.
The social services feature offers instant messaging (chat), pictures and video sharing and the capability to make voice and video calls. It also features a teleconferencing facility for up to 20 callers on single voice call, and up to five callers on a video call.
Sasai also offers ‘Sasai Moments’, a feature on which users can post content – ranging from articles, pictures and videos – to their followers. Users can follow or unfollow, like or unlike posted content, as well as post comments on others users’ Moments pages.
Sasai, which can be downloaded on http://spread.sasai.mobi:8768/im has certainly identified a significant digital economy gap in Africa.
Although it may be early days, the company has been seizing opportunities to partner with leading technology players in the mobile telecoms and financial services arena, laying the groundwork for its expansion across Africa and positioning itself for real growth on the continent and beyond.
