Two Kenyan entrepreneurs, Brian Muriu (pictured, left) and Alistair Gould (pictured, right), have developed a solution to enable Kenyans living abroad to pay their bills back home directly.

The app -Tulix- allows better tracking of expenses and ensures the security of transactions. Often, the diaspora sends money for special purposes back home, but the amount ends up being misappropriated by the recipients. Tulix comes as an answer to this problem.

The app took part last March 10 in the Demo Day organized by venture capital fund Antler for early-stage companies. It provides access to over 100,000 businesses and institutions instantly and directly via the M-Pesa mobile payment service. It can also be used to pay for necessities such as hospital bills, school fees, etc. The Tulix wallet is reloadable with a bank card and users can define expenses and allocate the necessary amounts. They can also track their spending, which allows them to plan various financial allocations. When a transaction is completed, Tulix sends notifications via messaging and email to the originator of the payment about the status of the transaction.

Brian Muriu, who holds an Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering, explains that the idea for Tulix came from his own experience. "It usually started with me receiving a phone call from my relatives living and working in the United States late at night. They would call to inform me of the secret code I needed to use to retrieve the money they had sent via a service such as Western Union or Moneygram during their work break. The withdrawal process is often very tedious.”

Brian Muriu assures that the app keeps no record of payment information, including that relating to bank cards that may have been used to reload wallets. He claims that personal information is kept secure.

Adoni Conrad Quenum