Five women-led businesses have received a combined US$50,000 in equity-free seed funding through the Women in Tech Zambia Cohort 6 Accelerator Programme. Each winner will receive US$10,000 to support business growth, product development and expansion.
The winners were announced at the programme’s Demo Day on 24 September 2026. The programme was implemented by BongoHive in partnership with the Standard Chartered Foundation and Village Capital.
The funding provides direct support to businesses working in education technology, financial services, healthcare, construction and digital marketing. These sectors address practical challenges faced by businesses, institutions and communities in Zambia.
The five winners emerged from a group of 10 women entrepreneurs who completed 12 weeks of business development, mentorship, customer insights, financial management, marketing, growth and fundraising preparation.
Five businesses addressing practical challenges
Chifula Nambela – Techroots IT Solutions Zambia Limited
Chifula Nambela is using technology to address inefficiencies in the education sector. Her business, Techroots IT Solutions Zambia Limited, was founded after she and her co-founder identified the challenges schools face when using manual systems. These systems can take up valuable time, slow decision-making and limit access to useful information for educators and learners.
Her interest in education technology grew after participating in the Huawei Seeds for the Future Programme in 2023 and the Digital Tour in China in 2024. The experience exposed her to the role technology can play in transforming education and strengthened her interest in developing solutions suited to African institutions.
Techroots has developed Eduroot, a cloud-based Education Management System that brings admissions, academics, finance, communication and reporting together on one platform. The system is designed to reduce administrative workloads and give education institutions better access to information for decision-making.
The business plans to introduce Eduroot LMS and an AI Suite as it expands. Chifula’s longer-term vision is to grow Techroots across Zambia and neighbouring countries and help more institutions adopt digital tools that support teaching, learning and administration.
Chikombo Chilufya – Likumi Financial Services
Chikombo Chilufya co-founded Likumi Financial Services after seeing the difficulties faced by women and youth entrepreneurs who struggled to access formal finance. Many market traders do not have collateral, credit histories or formal business records. This often leaves them dependent on informal lenders that can make business growth more difficult.
Likumi provides working capital loans and financial education to women and youth market traders across Zambia. Its technology-enabled approach uses a digital loan management platform built on Odoo ERP to manage customer onboarding, loan processing, repayments and portfolio management.
The company is also integrating Mobile Money and other digital tools to make its services more accessible to informal entrepreneurs.
Likumi has already served more than 140 active customers and disbursed 286 loans. The company has also developed a fully operational digital lending platform to support future growth.
Chikombo’s vision is to expand Likumi into new markets while strengthening its lending technology and introducing intelligent credit assessment. The wider goal is to give more women and young entrepreneurs access to finance and financial knowledge that can help them build sustainable businesses.
Kasongo Nyakaula – Pluntum
Kasongo Nyakaula’s experience as a patient helped shape the idea behind Pluntum Enterprise. After becoming ill, she spent months moving between healthcare facilities and repeatedly explaining her medical history. She also underwent tests that had already been completed and experienced the loss of paper medical records.
That experience led Kasongo and her husband, a medical scientist and medical applications specialist, to consider how technology could make patient information easier to access and manage.
Pluntum is a Lusaka-based ICT and digital transformation company focused on modernising healthcare. Its main solution is HealthMed, a Hospital Information Management System that the company exclusively implements, customises and supports in Zambia.
The platform integrates patient records, billing, pharmacy, laboratory services and clinical workflows. It also connects directly with laboratory equipment, reducing manual data entry and helping to limit errors.
Pluntum has secured the exclusive HealthMed partnership for Zambia and is the country’s sole authorised implementation partner. The company has also developed partnerships with global technology providers and plans to extend its digital transformation work into enterprise resource planning solutions for other industries.
Wanji Maluba – Quotify Services Limited
Wanji Maluba brought her experience as a Quantity Surveyor into the development of Quotify Services Limited. She identified a major challenge in Zambia’s construction industry: reliable and current construction pricing information can be difficult to access.
Construction professionals often depend on outdated information, spreadsheets and personal networks when estimating costs. Quotify was created to address this problem by providing construction pricing intelligence through a cloud-based platform.
The platform brings verified and updated construction cost data together for contractors, consultants, developers, procurement professionals and government agencies. It is designed to support estimating, procurement planning, benchmarking and other construction decisions.
Quotify has developed a functional prototype and validated its concept. It has also established collaborations with the Zambia Institute of Quantity Surveyors, the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors and the Zambia Public Procurement Authority.
Wanji’s vision is to develop Quotify into a trusted source of construction data in Zambia and eventually across Africa. The business is also exploring the use of AI-powered insights alongside structured market data and cloud technology.
Adele Makayi – Pocket Academy by Yellow Ray Digital
Adele Makayi co-founded Pocket Academy under Yellow Ray Digital Agency after identifying a gap in digital marketing education and market data designed specifically for African businesses.
She observed that marketers, entrepreneurs and students often rely on courses, platforms and datasets developed for Western markets. Pocket Academy aims to provide learning and market intelligence that reflects the Zambian business environment.
The platform combines digital marketing education with localised market intelligence. It is being developed as a mobile-optimised Progressive Web App, allowing marketers, SMEs and students to access learning materials and Zambian digital marketing insights through their smartphones.
Pocket Academy has also established a research partnership with the University of Lusaka. The partnership is intended to support the development of a credible local data ecosystem that can help businesses make marketing decisions based on information from the Zambian market.
Over the next two years, Adele plans to launch the platform, onboard at least 10 institutional partners and grow its community to more than 2,500 active users. The company also plans to provide free digital marketing education to at least 1,000 students through its student learning programme.
Funding supports the next stage of growth
The US$50,000 in equity-free funding gives the five businesses additional resources to develop their products and strengthen their operations without giving up equity in their companies.
The businesses also demonstrate the range of challenges being addressed by women entrepreneurs in Zambia. Their solutions cover education management, access to finance, healthcare systems, construction data and digital marketing.
The Women in Tech Zambia programme is now in its sixth cohort. Through its accelerator model, the programme provides women founders with business development support, mentorship, networks and opportunities to prepare for investment and growth.
The 2026 cohort also highlights the role of partnerships in supporting early-stage businesses. BongoHive implemented the programme with the Standard Chartered Foundation and Village Capital, bringing together business support, mentorship and funding opportunities for participating founders.
The programme’s focus on women-led businesses forms part of efforts to strengthen participation in Zambia’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. For the five winners, the US$10,000 awards provide capital that can now be directed towards the next stage of building their businesses.
