By Correspondent

TWO Tanzanian ICT Innovators, left Dar Es Salaam yesterday for a Four Day- The African Telecommunication Union (ATU) G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) Summit and Digital Innovation Challenge, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from today 26 to 29 September 2025.

The Country’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) Sector Regulator- Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has fully funded return air-tickets for the two innovators Ms Asha Haji Haji of GetAI   and Mr Alex Gastone Mkwizu of Product Manager of Black Swan-AI credit scoring technology who are among 10 finalists from 42 African Countries.  

Granting the air-tickets to the two innovators shortly before departure in Dar Es salaam yesterday, the TCRA Director General Dr. Jabiri Bakari expressed TCRA’s determination to build a Tanzanian Society that is empowered and enabled by communication services.

Dr. Bakari said previous innovators paid substantial amounts of money to get resources like spectrum frequencies, numbering resources and internet domain names for testing their startups, which TCRA in collaboration with COTECH now offer free of charge to innovators to test the ICT Solutions.   

The nomination of two Tanzanian innovators followed a rigorous internal review of more than 500 entries drawn from all the four (4) editions of ATU’s Africa Innovation Challenge series, and reflects the potential impact of innovation in advancing Africa’s digital transformation agenda.    According the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Programme Coordinator, Ms Alice Koech, Tanzania’s AI based credit scoring engine solution that extends credit to underserved borrowers using alternative data., has been selected as one of ATU’s nominees in the Fin tech category for the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) Summit and Digital Innovation Challenge, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa.

The 2025 G20 Leaders' Summit will be held in Cape Town, South Africa marking the first time the G20 is hosted on African soil. Under the presidency of South Africa (December 2024–November 2025), the summit carries the theme "Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability" and aims to spotlight Africa and the broader Global South in global decision-making. Leaders are expected to address inclusive economic growth, debt relief and sustainability for low-income nations, climate and energy transition, innovation, and development priorities that align with both African aspirations and global challenges.

 Africa will be part of the technology track engaging in discussion with global leaders exhibiting our solutions to potential clients and investors and share our experiences in building tech startups in the African market

Speaking before his departure in Dar Es salaam yesterday, one of the two innovators Mr Alex Mkwizu said that in April 2025, one of the Tanzanian startups (Black Swan) involved in this Challenge caught the world’s attention. Black Swan was named by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) as one of the Top 10 African AI Startups, selected from over a hundred across the continent. Just months later, that recognition extended to the global stage at the G20 Summit in South Africa, where Black Swan represented Tanzania among a select group of companies showcasing breakthrough technologies. The milestone was strengthened by the support of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), whose commitment to advancing AI and data-driven innovation continues to position Tanzania as an emerging hub for technology in Africa. TCRA’s initiatives, including offering startups freemium access to USSD services for reaching last-mile consumers, demonstrate their intentional efforts to grow an innovation-driven ecosystem. It is no coincidence that five of the ten startups recognized by ATU as Africa’s best AI companies came from Tanzania.

For decades, credit in Africa has been seen as a lifeline, a way to survive the day and to smooth the gaps between income and expenses. But survival is not the same as growth. Survival does not build futures. Growth does. Black Swan was built to prove that when financial decisions are grounded in data, credit can move from being a tool of survival to becoming a ladder of prosperity.

At the heart of this mission is credit scoring and affordability assessment. These two words are key to understanding our work: Credit Scoring, a way to measure how likely someone is to repay a loan based on past financial behavior, and Affordability, a way to determine how much money an individual can safely borrow and repay without financial strain, based on their income and expenses. These are not abstract concepts; they are questions of trust. Can a person be trusted to repay? How much can they borrow without falling into hardship? By applying AI and alternative data such as mobile money, merchant transactions, and bank statements, Black Swan gives financial institutions a clearer picture of people’s real financial lives. The result is confidence. Lenders lend wisely. Borrowers gain access to opportunities that were once closed to them.

The impact is already evident. Black Swan’s technology powers lending across a spectrum: from secured to unsecured, from digital to traditional, covering personal and school fees loans, business and tender loans, vehicle financing, and investment loans. Decisions that once took weeks are made in minutes. Risk is reduced. Non-performing loans decline. Trust grows. Through its partnership with Credit info Tanzania, more than 30 financial institutions in the country now rely on Black Swan to make smarter, faster, and fairer loan decisions.

But Black Swan’s vision reaches further. The team publishes openly, contributes to academic research, and engages regulators to shape a healthier financial ecosystem. The belief is simple: Africa does not need a single winner. It needs many innovators. Building the future of credit requires collaboration among banks, fintechs, regulators, and investors alike.

That is the “why” behind Black Swan — not just to build tools, but to reshape the entire system of credit. To move from survival to growth. From credit to capital. From capital to prosperity, because when people are entrusted with opportunity, they almost always rise to meet it.

Mr is Alex Mkwizu, a Tanzania born and raised. I have been privileged to win multiple awards in creative and emerging technologies including in Virtual Reality Technology where our C-Section VR training simulation won the best innovation across 42 African countries and also an AI credit scoring technology that was part of the 10 finalists of the latest African Technological Union 2024-2025.

 Lately, one of the innovations I have been privileged to work on has been shortlisted over 500 entries to be exhibited in South Africa at the G20 summit. The convention has pledged to support my accommodation and local transport.