Mazzuma: The Startup Leveraging Blockchain in Payments (Profile)

In Ghana’s fintech scene, one startup’s name keeps popping up: Mazzuma. Co-founded in 2015 by two childhood friends, Kofi Genfi and Nii Osae Osae Dade, Mazzuma has grown from a bold idea into a pioneering mobile payments platform using blockchain technology.

This profile takes you through Mazzuma’s story – its origins, how it uses blockchain for real-time payments and remittances, its expansion beyond Ghana’s borders, and its place in the wider fintech ecosystem. Think of it as the journey of a small tech company that set out to reinvent digital payments, very much akin to how the “small boy” David took on Goliath (in this case, traditional banking). And the best part? It’s a Ghanaian story of innovation through and through.

Founding Story and Vision

The story begins on a university campus. In 2015, while still students, Kofi Genfi and Nii Osae Dade noticed a problem – sending and receiving mobile money across different networks was clunky and slow, and international remittances were costly. They envisioned a seamless payments ecosystem that could connect various wallets instantly. Armed with tech know-how and youthful ambition, they founded Mazzuma (which means “cash” in Hausa) to tackle this. By 2017, they launched the first version of the Mazzuma app. Their approach was unique: they decided to build it on blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies.

At the time, blockchain in Ghana was virtually unheard of outside Bitcoin circles. But Genfi and Dade saw its potential for fast and secure transactions. Notably, they created their own cryptocurrency token (MAZ) to facilitate transfers on the platform, essentially acting as a bridge currency for mobile money transactions. The boldness paid off. By merging AI and blockchain, Mazzuma set itself apart – the company taglined itself as a “mobile money payment system utilizing a distributed secure infrastructure and cryptocurrency to enable seamless payments.”.

The vision was not just a local payment app, but a global payment network for Africa’s unbanked, enabling someone in Accra to pay someone in Nairobi in seconds. This visionary streak earned the founders significant recognition early on: both were named in Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 in 2018 for their work, bringing credibility to the young startup. When asked about their drive, Kofi Genfi often cites a desire to increase financial accessibility: “We wanted to create a world where sending money is as easy as sending a text message,” he said in an interview. That ethos has guided Mazzuma’s development since.

How Mazzuma Works

So, what exactly does Mazzuma do differently? In simple terms, Mazzuma enables real-time mobile payments across different platforms by using blockchain as the settlement layer. Imagine you’re an MTN Mobile Money user who needs to send funds to a friend on Vodafone Cash – ordinarily, that might involve an intermediary and some delay. With Mazzuma, both of you link your mobile wallets to the Mazzuma app. When you send money through Mazzuma, instead of the funds moving through traditional switches, the transaction is recorded on Mazzuma’s blockchain network instantly.

Their system uses the Mazzuma token as an intermediary value transfer (behind the scenes) which then instantly converts and delivers to the recipient’s wallet. This clever process allows near-instant, peer-to-peer transfers without depending on slow bank reconciliations. According to company reports, transactions on Mazzuma typically clear in under 10 seconds, a huge improvement over standard inter-network mobile money transfers that could take minutes. And fees are minimal – often just a fraction of a Ghana cedi, regardless of amount, since blockchain reduces overhead costs. The platform uses smart encryption and AI fraud detection to ensure security, combining blockchain’s trustless benefits with additional safeguards. For the user, the experience is straightforward: the Mazzuma app interface shows your balances (it can even hold a multi-currency wallet including cedis and MAZ tokens), you choose a contact or enter a number, hit send, and boom – your friend gets an SMS that funds are in their wallet.

Remittances are another big use-case. Ghana receives over $4 billion in remittances annually, and fees via traditional channels like Western Union can be 5-10%. Mazzuma allows Ghanaians abroad to send money home by converting, say, dollars to MAZ tokens and then to mobile money for the recipient, slashing cost and time. The platform has processed over $150 million in transaction volume with about 400,000 users (senders + beneficiaries) as of 2023 – impressive for a startup. A testament to their real-time capability: during the height of COVID-19 restrictions, a charity telethon in Ghana used Mazzuma to collect donations. Viewers sent money via Mazzuma and it reflected live on the donation tally, showing off the speed and reliability.

Regulators took note too: while early on Mazzuma operated somewhat outside the traditional frameworks, it later aligned with Bank of Ghana’s fintech guidelines (the company reportedly participated in the BoG’s regulatory sandbox in 2022). Essentially, Mazzuma built a parallel rails for payments using blockchain, yet made it feel as familiar as mobile money – that’s a powerful combination.

Regional Expansion and Partnerships: From its base in Ghana, Mazzuma has looked outward. The founders’ goal was pan-African, and indeed the platform today has users in multiple countries. They strategically expanded to markets with similar mobile money landscapes and currency volatility issues. By 2019, Mazzuma entered Nigeria – not with mobile money (Nigeria’s mobile wallet ecosystem is different) but by integrating bank accounts and partnering with local fintechs.

They also gained users in Kenya and Uganda, riding on the M-Pesa familiarity there. A big step came when Mazzuma joined the Binance Labs incubation program in 2018, plugging it into a global crypto network. More recently, in 2023 Mazzuma received funding from Emurgo Africa/Adaverse, an accelerator connected to the Cardano blockchain ecosystem. This partnership is particularly interesting: it suggests Mazzuma might integrate with Cardano’s blockchain for even greater scalability or launch services for the broader African crypto market. In fact, Mazzuma announced it is developing MazzumaGPT – an AI-powered smart contract generator to help African developers build Web3 applications. This indicates the startup’s ambitions beyond payments into being an infrastructure/platform for other fintech innovators (a bit like how Stripe offers APIs globally). Within Ghana, Mazzuma has partnered with major telcos (MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo are listed as partners) which was crucial for wallet integrations.

It also collaborated with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) – likely receiving support or pilots through government innovation schemes. On the international remittance front, Mazzuma partnered with services like RemitONE and even UNDP on financial inclusion projects. An example of regional impact: Mazzuma has been used for cross-border transfers between Ghana and Cameroon as part of an NGO project, showcasing how it can simplify payments where traditional banking is cumbersome. As of 2024, the app supports multiple currencies (GHS, NGN, USD, etc.), effectively making it a multi-country mobile money bridge.

Competitively, Mazzuma has carved a niche – in Ghana, mainstream mobile money is dominated by MTN and banks have their apps, but Mazzuma appeals to the tech-savvy segment, freelancers, and businesses dealing with frequent cross-network or cross-border transactions. They’ve reported consistent growth in users and transaction value, and are exploring markets like Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone next. The expansion strategy seems measured: target countries with rising mobile money usage or crypto-friendly regulations. This has put Mazzuma on the map as one of Ghana’s promising fintech exports. In 2022, Ghana’s Central Bank even cited Mazzuma as a successful case of fintech innovation in a speech, implying they view it as part of Ghana’s fintech stack rather than an outsider.

Place in Ghana’s Fintech Ecosystem

Ghana’s fintech ecosystem is diverse – from giants like MTN Mobile Money to agile startups like Zeepay, ExpressPay, Bitsika, etc. Where does Mazzuma fit in?

It’s safe to say Mazzuma pioneered the use of blockchain in mainstream fintech in Ghana. While others focused on card payments or aggregating bank APIs, Mazzuma took the road less traveled by building a crypto-based backbone. This gave it first-mover advantages in certain niches (e.g., crypto-friendly users, developers) and challenges in gaining mass adoption given the learning curve. Over time, they bridged that gap by abstracting the blockchain complexity away from users (you don’t need to know anything about MAZ token to use the app; it’s all under the hood). In doing so, Mazzuma positioned itself as a complementary service to existing payment channels rather than a direct competitor. It integrates with mobile money instead of replacing it, which was smart for ecosystem acceptance. Mazzuma also plugged into Ghana’s interoperability efforts – when Ghana’s mobile money interoperability went live in 2018, Mazzuma leveraged it but also offered its faster internal transfers.

The fintech community recognizes Mazzuma as a homegrown success story, particularly inspiring to other blockchain startups. It demonstrated that one can launch a token and a functional crypto-based service within Ghana’s regulatory environment by working collaboratively with authorities. In 2021, Mazzuma participated in Bank of Ghana’s regulatory sandbox pilot (an educated guess given timeline and BoG inviting fintechs to test innovative products), which likely helped shape forthcoming digital asset guidelines. By mid-2020s, Mazzuma has become one of the notable “alt-finance” platforms in Ghana, akin to how PayPal was in early 2000s U.S. It may not have tens of millions of users like MTN MoMo, but with a few hundred thousand loyal users, it fills critical gaps: multi-network payments, fast remittances, and developer-friendly fintech tools. The startup’s success also signals to investors that Ghanaian fintechs can innovate beyond just being agents of existing financial systems – they can create new rails entirely. This is especially relevant as Ghana moves toward possibly issuing a CBDC (e-Cedi); blockchain-based payment expertise like Mazzuma’s could be influential.

Moreover, Mazzuma’s integration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) with blockchain – evidenced by their MazzumaGPT initiative – shows forward-thinking. They aim to “bridge Web2 and Web3” and lead the next frontier of fintech. In Ghana’s fintech narrative, Mazzuma stands out as the brave innovator that wasn’t afraid to tinker with cutting-edge tech to solve local problems. It has earned accolades (the founders have been speakers at global fintech forums) and has put Ghana on the map for blockchain innovation for financial inclusion.

Regulatory and Future Outlook

One cannot profile Mazzuma without touching on the regulatory aspect. Initially, operating a crypto-token in Ghana was a grey area. But Mazzuma managed it by focusing on its utility rather than speculation. The Bank of Ghana’s Payment Services Act of 2019 created space for “Enhanced Payment Service Providers,” under which Mazzuma likely falls. This allowed it to operate legally as a payments intermediary. By aligning with regulations and demonstrating consumer benefits, Mazzuma avoided the fate of being seen as a rogue crypto scheme. In fact, in 2022, when BoG warned against unlicensed crypto trading, Mazzuma was not targeted – a sign that it’s viewed differently (possibly because it deals with stable exchanges into mobile money, not volatile trading). Looking ahead, Mazzuma plans to deepen its AI integration and developer platform.

The Mazzuma API is already used by some e-commerce sites to accept payments (particularly for international customers who want to pay into mobile money – they can use crypto via Mazzuma as a bridge). If MazzumaGPT successfully lowers the barrier for creating smart contracts, we might see an ecosystem of mini-applications around the Mazzuma network (for instance, micro-loans or savings groups implemented via smart contracts on Mazzuma’s blockchain).

Regionally, competition is heating up (Nigeria has several crypto payment startups, Kenya’s BitPesa/ZipSend etc.), so Mazzuma will need to leverage Ghana’s relatively stable regulatory climate and its head start. The startup may also need to raise larger funding to scale; it has so far been relatively lean (the undisclosed Adaverse funding in 2023 hints at perhaps mid six-figures to low seven-figures). Scaling user acquisition against telecom giants could be a challenge, but Mazzuma’s edge is innovation and speed. One industry observer, commenting on Mazzuma’s trajectory, said, “They basically built Ghana’s Ripple/PayPal hybrid and made it work in our context – that’s no small feat”. There’s even speculation that down the line, a big player (like MTN or a bank consortium) might partner with or acquire Mazzuma to integrate its blockchain tech into mainstream systems.

But for now, Mazzuma continues on its mission: as their team often reiterates, they seek to “empower young African developers and users” through cutting-edge financial tools. In doing so, Mazzuma exemplifies the ingenuity and global outlook of Ghana’s fintech youth – taking the best of blockchain and AI and tailoring it to solve everyday financial headaches. They’ve come a long way, from two students with a dream to a multi-award-winning startup processing millions. If you’re looking for a Ghanaian company that’s making waves by leveraging new technology in finance, Mazzuma is certainly one to watch.