Africa-Press – Botswana. Shine Chiviya is a man on a mission to give small enterprises a fighting chance. He wants to empower small businesses to thrive and excel under the weight of a punishing economy.
As CEO of Ipachi Capital Solutions, he possesses a Bachelor in Business Administration and Management from the Frankfurt School of Finance that he has put to good use.
Ipachi, which means ‘wallet’, is a technological firm that offers financial and technological solutions through the Ipachi mobile app. “We give small to medium-sized enterprises an automated record-keeping system which can allow them easy access to credit. Also, we give them the opportunity to become their own bosses through selling prepaid services just through our mobile app,” Chiviya said.
Born and raised in Tutume, Chiviya said growing up in the village, he used to watch his mother, who runs a tuckshop, fail to procure enhancing capital tools like automated sale points because she had neither the capital nor the credit rating score necessary to secure a loan.
“My passion to help small businesses grew stronger and I got on a mission to innovate a solution that will empower small businesses to thrive,” Chiviya said. Years down the line Ipachi, a mobile app that provides financial record-keeping and data capturing in real-time, was born to allow for viable business credit instruments. It also assists merchants through cost-saving by eliminating or minimizing costs related to hardware, making it easy for enterprisers to start businesses cheaply.
As a capital venture firm, he alluded to the fact that like any other business they have competitor problems, but their comparative advantage model builds on the fact that banks don’t help small businesses in the informal sector run their businesses. This is unlike what Ipachi offers; a chance to use technology to better run your business through technology-based support.
“Very soon, we will be introducing new inventions within the Ipachi mobile app which will allow small businesses to accept debit/credit card payments. The existing point-of-sale devices offered by banks are expensive to rent and the commission rates are just insane. By introducing this feature, we eliminate the need for hardware and make the service affordable to small business owners. Other interesting innovations are happening at our base and will soon come to light,” Chiviya said.
The technological ‘maharishi’ mentioned that they had to burn through personal savings to finance the project within the first years of inception.
“This is because the major hurdle any start-up incurs is finding start-up capital,” Chiviya said.
He further implored Batswana to follow Ipachi Capital-Botswana on Facebook and see how it can help them as small business owners.
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