Zambia
A digital finance and compliance platform empowering refugee and migrant entrepreneurs to access funding, automate bookkeeping, and expand their businesses across SADC borders.
Scaling
1-3 years
$60,000.00
Last update: October 05, 2023
Across Southern Africa, thousands of refugees and migrants earn their livelihoods through small informal shops, market stalls, and home-based businesses. Despite their entrepreneurial spirit, most remain locked out of the formal economy because they lack access to finance, do not keep business records, and are unfamiliar with local statutory or tax compliance systems. Their operations are cash-based, undocumented, and therefore invisible to banks, microfinance institutions, and investors.
In Zambia and other SADC countries, refugees often face language barriers, legal restrictions, and discrimination that further limit their ability to open bank accounts or register businesses. Without proper bookkeeping, they cannot demonstrate profitability, apply for loans, or comply with licensing and tax requirements. As a result, they are frequently exploited by middlemen who overcharge for “registration services” or falsify documents, exposing them to penalties and loss of trust.
This problem extends across borders. A Congolese or Burundian trader operating in Zambia cannot easily expand or relocate their business to Malawi, Zimbabwe, or Tanzania because each country has different compliance and taxation rules. Migrant entrepreneurs who try to grow regionally face duplication, regulatory barriers, and high transaction costs. Meanwhile, financial institutions and aid programs seeking to support refugees struggle to identify credible applicants or track the impact of their loans and grants.
The outcome is a persistent cycle of exclusion and dependency. Refugee entrepreneurs remain stuck in informal markets with limited growth prospects, while the aid and finance systems around them fail to channel resources efficiently. Billions of development dollars flow into these economies annually, but the value rarely circulates within local refugee communities.
EaseOnTrack addresses this challenge by bridging the gap between informal entrepreneurship and formal finance. It offers a mobile and USSD-accessible platform where users can record sales and expenses, generate financial statements automatically, and track their compliance obligations such as taxes, licenses, and social security. The system creates digital credibility for previously undocumented entrepreneurs and opens pathways to financing through an integrated Financiers Portal.
Through this innovation, EaseOnTrack tackles three interlinked problems: lack of financial literacy and recordkeeping, limited access to affordable capital, and the absence of cross-border financial integration. By standardizing digital bookkeeping and compliance tracking across SADC countries, the platform enables entrepreneurs to operate and expand beyond national borders without fear of legal or financial penalties.
The impact extends beyond individual users. Financial institutions benefit from a reliable digital pipeline of pre-verified micro-entrepreneurs, reducing risk and transaction costs. Development agencies gain transparent data on how funds reach marginalized groups. Local economies gain stronger, more resilient small businesses capable of generating employment and reinvesting profits within their communities.
Ultimately, the challenge EaseOnTrack solves is not just about accounting or finance it is about inclusion, dignity, and economic justice. It empowers refugees and migrants to move from survival to sustainability by giving them the digital tools to manage their businesses, comply with the law, and access the opportunities they deserve.
EaseOnTrack is a digital finance and compliance platform designed to formalize and empower refugee and migrant entrepreneurs. The solution combines mobile-based bookkeeping, automated compliance tracking, and a financing portal that connects informal business owners to funding opportunities.
At its core, the platform allows users—many of whom lack smartphones or advanced literacy—to record sales, expenses, and inventory through a simple mobile app or USSD code. These daily entries are automatically converted into professional financial reports such as income statements, cash flow summaries, and balance sheets. This data enables entrepreneurs to understand their business performance and build financial credibility.
The second component is the Compliance Engine, which helps users calculate and monitor statutory obligations such as taxes, business licenses, pensions, and social security contributions. Each country’s regulatory framework is localized into the platform, enabling users to receive tailored alerts, deadlines, and cost estimates. This protects them from exploitation by middlemen and prevents penalties resulting from ignorance of compliance rules.
The third component, the Financiers Portal, connects users to banks, microfinance institutions, and development funds. The portal automatically generates business profiles and risk scores from verified transaction data, allowing financiers to identify credible borrowers without costly manual vetting. Entrepreneurs can also access proposal templates and receive in-app guidance from EaseOnTrack’s Business Development Team to strengthen their loan or grant applications.
The prototype funded under the Hacking Wealth Challenge will upgrade this Financiers Portal with a matching algorithm that links users to financing based on their financial data and sector. It will also include a cross-border compliance module covering Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, allowing migrant entrepreneurs to operate or relocate across borders with ease.
Our methodology follows a user-centered design approach:
User research and co-design: Engage refugee entrepreneurs in pilot sites to understand their daily challenges, transaction habits, and compliance gaps.
Prototype development: Build a functional portal integrating the bookkeeping, compliance, and financier modules, optimized for low bandwidth and USSD use.
Pilot testing: Onboard at least 300 refugee entrepreneurs and 10 financing institutions across the three pilot countries.
Feedback and iteration: Continuously refine the prototype based on user feedback and partner input.
Monitoring and learning: Collect data on user adoption, financing success, and compliance improvements to evaluate impact.
EaseOnTrack’s approach integrates financial literacy, technology, and partnership. It collaborates with refugee-serving NGOs, local governments, and financial institutions to ensure that the tool aligns with national policies and user realities. The platform is designed to be scalable, modular, and inclusive—accessible by phone, secure, and adaptable for different jurisdictions.
Since its launch in 2021, EaseOnTrack has transformed how refugee and migrant entrepreneurs manage and grow their small businesses. The platform has demonstrated measurable progress in enhancing financial inclusion, compliance, and access to funding. Key outcomes include:
Improved Financial Recordkeeping
Over 480 refugee and migrant entrepreneurs in Zambia have adopted the platform to record daily sales, expenses, and cash flow. This has increased financial literacy and allowed users to generate formal financial statements for the first time, helping them make informed business decisions.
Access to Finance and Investment
Through the integrated Financiers Portal and business development support, 126 users have successfully accessed more than USD 366,000 in grants and loans. This funding has enabled small traders to restock, expand operations, and employ others within their communities.
Enhanced Statutory Compliance
EaseOnTrack’s compliance feature has reduced vulnerability to fines and exploitation by middlemen. Refugee entrepreneurs now understand and meet tax, license, and social security obligations. Many users have formalized their businesses and secured legal operating permits, strengthening their legitimacy and reducing business risks.
Strengthened Financial Ecosystem for Refugees
Financial institutions and NGOs working with EaseOnTrack have gained access to reliable, digital business records that reduce due diligence time and increase trust in lending to refugees and informal traders. This outcome has begun shifting perceptions about refugees from “aid recipients” to credible business owners.
Job Creation and Community Resilience
The growth of these refugee-run enterprises has generated employment opportunities for youth and women, improved household incomes, and increased local circulation of wealth in host communities.
Proof of Scalability Across Borders
The success in Zambia provides a strong foundation for expansion into Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The pilot data and feedback have validated the platform’s adaptability across different compliance and financial environments.
Strengthened Data-Driven Decision Making
EaseOnTrack collects anonymized business insights that help development partners understand trends in refugee entrepreneurship, guiding evidence-based interventions and inclusive policy reforms.
Overall, these outcomes demonstrate that digital inclusion and financial innovation can significantly improve livelihoods and economic participation for refugees and migrants. EaseOnTrack has proven its ability to make funding flow more efficiently to marginalized entrepreneurs—laying the groundwork for scalable, sustainable impact across the SADC region
