Sinai Kayani

Mr. Siani S. Kayani

Principal

siani@duniacom.com

Mr. Siani Kayani is the Principal and Founder of DuniaCom Group. Mr. Kayani is a seasoned and accomplished Business Executive, whose experience spans many sectors, including, but not limited to, Financial Consultation, Mining, International Trading, Healthcare (US Department of Health and Human Services), Human Resources, IT, and Telecommunications (Financial Technology (FinTech) projects in East Africa). He is also the owner of a US Provisional Patent for a Java-based Template Tool Software Application.

Education:
  • B.S. in Computer Science from Washington and Lee University (VA, USA)
  • M.S. in Health Management Systems from Duquesne University (PA, USA)
  • Bioinformatics Certification from Georgetown University (Washington D.C., USA)

Tanzania

DuniaCom Group Limited (A Subsidiary of DuniaCom Group)

Duniacom Group has been selected as an awardee of the Mozilla CommonVoice Kiswahili Grant. DuniaCom Group Limited (DGLTD) is a Tanzania-based financial technology company with a focus on the rural sector. DGLTD is primarily charged with managing the implementation of the Mozilla Common Voice (MCV) Kiswahili project in Tanzania. The Grant for this project has been endowed by MCV as part of its open-source initiative to make voice technology more inclusive by working with companies and universities to develop locally suitable, and voice-enabled technological solutions that leverage Mozilla’s open source Kiswahili data set to unlock social and economic opportunities for the underserved communities in East Africa. The initiative is being supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Development Cooperation).

A majority of smallholder farmers in Tanzania are only able to communicate through the Kiswahili spoken language and its dialects. DGLTD’s implementation will center around the development of a Kiswahili Text and Voice Recognition Platform (KTVRP) for Agricultural Advisory and Financial Services for Smallholder Farmers. A text and voice-based platform made available in the language of the underserved (i.e., Kiswahili) would be key to wide access, adoption, and usage of digital agricultural advisory and financial services in Tanzania. The objective is to develop a text and voice recognition platform that will offer smallholder farmers in the Tanzanian Maize Value Chain personalized digital financial and non-financial automated services based on location, agro-ecological zones, and crop cycle. Based on gender-disaggregated data from the pilot phase, it is anticipated that the majority of participants will be women.

Mpoki E. Mwambulukutu

Mr. Mpoki E. Mwambulukutu

Country Director — Tanzania

mpoki.mwambulukutu@duniacom.co.tz

Mr. Mpoki E. Mwambulukutu is the Country Director for operations in Tanzania. Mr. Mwambulukutu has been a Consultant for various organizations and initiatives in Tanzania. Notably:

  • As a Project Management Consultant where he helped to lead the Strengthening of Small Businesses (mainly, smallholder horticulture farmers including women and youths) Value Chains for a project that was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.
  • As a Project Management Consultant where he helped to lead a Financial Inclusion initiative by supporting the sustainable deployment of agent network, customer activation strategy, building internal capacity market intelligence, and identification of potential opportunities in the mobile financial services’ ecosystem for a project funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Mastercard Foundation.
  • He worked in the Banking and Telecom industries as part of a team that launched the first ever Electronic SIM cards registration system in Tanzania, under Vodacom/M-PESA in-line with a revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM card registration in Tanzania.
  • As a Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation Officer in a Poverty Monitoring System for the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania.
  • As a Research Assistant analyzing the impact of energy use on poor urban livelihoods in Tanzania (1 year). This project was funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Education:
  • B.S. in Economics and Information Systems from LaSalle University (PA, USA)
  • M.S. in Economic Development and Planning from University College London (London, UK)
  • M.B.A. specializing in Management of Information Technology from Schiller University (Florida, USA)
  • MPhil in Science, Technology and Innovation from University of Sussex (Brighton, UK)

Mr. Franklin Bagalla

Digital Financial Services Specialist

Mr. John N. Bakilana

Head of Compliance and Finance

Mr. Anthony Joseph

Agronomist

Ms. Elizabeth E. Kavishe

Gender Specialist

Mr. Tito V. Lugoe

Head of Field Office

Ms. Dorice S. Ngoye

Communications Specialist

Our Network

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