Phone ownership has exploded across Africa in recent years. Today, more than 75% of East African citizens own a phone. However, most of these are simple feature phones primarily used for texting and cannot access online information resources. Additionally, most EAC citizens have experience with SMS menus in products such as Mpesa or mobile top-up services. Sauti innovates on the ubiquity of East Africa’s mobile traction to provide an SMS-based market and trade platform to citizens across East Africa.

• Daily wholesale and retail prices for 110 products;
• Coverage extending to 77 markets in 6 East African countries;
• Simplified tariff calculator for EAC and non-EAC products;
• Simplified regulatory procedures for cross-border trade;
• Language support for English, Swahili and Lugandan;
• Real-time international exchange rates;
• and SMS price updates for recently searched products

Sauti’s trade and information platform syncs information provided by our partners to provide traders with the most up-to-date and official information available. Sauti staff verify all our information, simplify the language, and translate it to increase its accessibility by all East African citizens. Our technology has unprecedented potential for scale, relative to other information channels, and the relatively low fixed costs of running the platform has translated into sustainability benefits for cross-border traders that have integrated the platform into their business!