Woman launches M-Riziki to dignify food distribution

Ms Lorna Sempele (right) with Mr Joshua Wanjugu, who runs a software development firm during the launch of M-Riziki on May 22 at Ngong' town in Kajiado County. M-Riziki is a web and mobile enabled system that facilitates a seamless flow of relief food. PHOTO | POOL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • M-Riziki has web and mobile enabled features that facilitate seamless flow of relief food
  • It virtually converges  donor, beneficiaries and shopkeepers into one platform, eliminating physical interaction
  • It follows strict procedures that eliminate chances of malpractices
  • Kajiado County  the first to use the innovation

Distribution of relief food especially during the Covid-19 pandemic has brought more suffering than relief to a majority of Kenyans.

This called for a solution and it inspired a former broadcast journalist, Ms Lorna Sempele, to invent M-Riziki, which has web and mobile enabled features that facilitate seamless flow of relief food from donor to the beneficiaries through pre-selected shops.

In April, Ms Sempele interacted with a group of young people in Mathare slums who were using  vouchers to feed families. The process was physical and time consuming because the beneficiaries had to get the food themselves.

PHYSICAL INTERACTION

She realised there was need for a better strategy and that is how she, with support from a software developer, invented M-Riziki.

M-Riziki virtually converges the donor, beneficiaries and shopkeepers into one platform, thus, eliminating physical interaction.

With the system, the donor, who can be the county or national governments, organisations or individuals, only identify its beneficiaries and pre-selected shops in the neighbourhood from where the food is picked.

They then provide the details to Ms Lorna and Mr Joshua Wanjugu, the software developer, to feed into the system, data that they use to generate a personalised identity number for each of the beneficiaries.

The number is sent to the mobile phones of beneficiaries on SMS alongside information on specified shop to collect the food.

For the beneficiaries to receive the food, they have to present the number to the shop staff, who also uses it to bill the duo.

Before releasing the payment through M-Pesa, Ms Lorna and Mr Wanjugu verify the food collection by requesting shop staff to provide receipts which detail the recipient and date of collection.

Mr Wanjugu says the strict procedures eliminate chances of malpractices, ensuring efficiency in relief distribution.

The donors, Mr Wanjugu says, deposits the money to buy the relief food in a bank account linked to M-Pesa.

ELECTRONIC RECORD

They use the system to activate payments thus keeping an electronic record of quantity of food bought and its cost, shops that have distributed the food and the people who have received the food.

 “Donors can easily track their money from the system. They can see how much was spent on a particular day and who the beneficiary was,” he explains.”

“Furthermore, we provide them with the receipts we collect from the shopkeepers to show that their money was indeed used. So there are no loopholes for corruption.”

Kajiado County is the first to use the innovation which rolled out last Friday. It will be using it to feed at least 30,000 vulnerable locals.

Ms Sempele says she is excited to have dignified distribution of the relief food.

“M-Riziki eliminates stigmatisation of people in need of the relief food. Once a beneficiary receives the message, he or she can walk to a pre-selected shop without anyone telling that they are poor and going for the food,” says Ms Sempele.

The system is, however, not limited to food distribution, she says.

Those seeking to support women and girls with sanitary towels, persons with disabilities with assistive equipment and HIV and Aids patients with anti-retroviral drugs can adopt the innovation to distribute the donation in privacy.

With M-Riziki, which she hopes to turn into a global brand, the poor would be helped in silence without stripping them of their dignity.

 “We surely don’t need to parade people in need of humanitarian aid. We can protect their dignity through use of digital solutions such as M-Riziki,” says Ms Sempele.