Kigali beta · joining list open
Chat, pay and sell — in one app built for Rwanda.
TumaChat puts your conversations, your wallet, your neighbourhood shops and your ikimina in the same place. Send a message, settle the bill, and never leave the thread.
The iOS app is not on the App Store yet. The Android app can be downloaded and installed from this site.
- Languages
- 4
- Currency
- RWF
- Apps to install
- One
- Bank account
- Not needed
- Chats
- Sparks
- Pay
- Mini Apps
- Ibimina
The walkthrough
Five things people already do every day, in one flow.
Every screen below is the actual app, not a mockup. Here is what each part of TumaChat does.
Conversations that can carry money
Text, photos, voice and video with the people you actually talk to — and a transfer that settles inside the same thread, so nobody has to switch apps to split a bill.
- One-to-one and group chats with read state
- Send money in-thread; the receipt is the message
- Official accounts for services like Irembo
- Contacts by @handle, no phone-number hunting
A feed that stays about your people
Sparks is the Moments-style side of TumaChat: photos, short video and a line about your day, shared with friends or publicly. Chronological, finite, no infinite scroll engineered to keep you there.
- Choose friends-only or public per post
- Appreciate and comment without a like economy
- Photo and video posts with real media handling
- Friends are mutual follows — nothing one-sided
The Pay Hub: wallet, QR, bills, top-ups
A single RWF wallet behind everything. Send and receive, scan a merchant QR, clear an EUCL bill, buy airtime, or wrap money in a gift envelope — all from one screen with one balance.
- Send and receive by QR or @handle
- Utility bills and airtime top-ups
- Gift envelopes for weddings and celebrations
- Every movement written as paired ledger entries
Services and shops, without another download
Moto rides, food delivery, health appointments, school fees, government paperwork and neighbourhood market shops live as Mini Apps inside TumaChat — so a first-time smartphone owner learns one interface, not twelve.
- Rides, delivery, health, education and gov services
- Neighbourhood shops with real product listings
- Nothing extra to install or keep updated
- Catalogue is server-driven, so it grows over time
Ibimina, with a ledger instead of a notebook
Rotating savings groups are already how a lot of Rwanda saves. TumaChat gives your ikimina a shared pot, an automatic contribution record and a payout schedule everyone in the circle can see.
- Group pot held in escrow, not a running total
- Every contribution timestamped and attributed
- Payout order and next recipient visible to all
- Works for women’s circles, saccos and work groups
Built here, not localised later
Rwanda-first is a set of decisions, not a flag in the logo.
Most super-apps arrive translated. TumaChat starts from how money and conversation already work between Kigali and the hills.
Four languages, switchable in-app
Kinyarwanda, English, French and Kiswahili — chosen from Settings, no reinstall, no separate build.
RWF is the primary currency
Whole-franc amounts, local number formatting, and a wallet that never asks you to think in dollars.
One app instead of twelve
Mini Apps keep storage and data use down, which matters on an entry-level Android and a metered bundle.
Ibimina treated as core
Rotating savings circles are a first-class feature with escrow and a shared ledger, not a bolt-on.
For business
Sell to your street before you sell to the world.
A market stall, a salon and a moto co-op should not need a website, a card terminal and an ad agency. TumaChat gives a small Rwandan business the three things it actually needs.
A storefront
List products with prices in RWF, take orders in-app, and get paid into the same wallet you already spend from.
Market Mode
Show a QR, set the amount, get paid. No terminal, no card fees, and the confirmation is instant for both sides.
Local ads
Promote to people nearby with a budget you set. Spend is drawn down per impression, so nothing disappears up front.
Merchant onboarding opens with the Kigali beta.
How the money is handled
A wallet is only worth the accounting behind it.
TumaChat is pre-launch, so here is the honest version: these are the rules the payment layer is built to, published so they can be held against us.
Double-entry by design
Every transfer is written as a matched debit and credit inside one database transaction. A balance is derived from the ledger, never edited directly.
Idempotent money calls
Payment requests carry an idempotency key, so a flaky connection or a double tap replays the original result instead of moving money twice.
Tiered limits and KYC
Accounts carry a KYC tier that caps what can move per transaction, and transfers require a resolved recipient — there is no send-by-name guesswork.
Escrow for shared money
Gift envelopes and ibimina pots sit in escrow accounts until they are claimed or paid out. Unclaimed envelope value returns to the sender automatically.
TumaChat is not yet a licensed payment provider. Live mobile money settlement will only be enabled once the relevant approvals are in place.
Early access
Be in the first group using TumaChat in Kigali.
We are opening the beta in batches so support stays real. Tell us how you would use it and we will place you accordingly.
The iOS app is not on the App Store yet. The Android app can be downloaded and installed from this site.
Questions
Straight answers.
Still unsure about something? Email us — a person replies.
Read the privacy policy and terms.
Is TumaChat available to download yet?
The Android app is ready to install from this site. Use the Android download on this page, allow installs from your browser, and sign in with the demo account. The iOS app is not on the App Store yet.
Which languages does the app support?
Kinyarwanda, English, French and Kiswahili, switchable from Settings without reinstalling. Currency, dates and number formatting follow Rwandan conventions.
Do I need a bank account?
No. TumaChat is built around a mobile wallet in Rwandan francs. Top-ups are designed for mobile money rails, and you can send, receive and pay bills without ever touching a bank.
Will it work on an entry-level Android phone?
That is the target, not an afterthought. Mini Apps mean you install one app instead of a dozen, media is compressed before upload, and screens are built to tolerate a slow or intermittent connection.
How do you make money if sending is free?
Revenue comes from the business side: a commission on shop orders, paid local advertising for merchants, and fees on specific wallet operations such as withdrawals. Person-to-person messaging is not the product being sold.
I run a small business. What do I get?
A storefront with product listings, Market Mode — a QR customers scan to pay you on the spot — and self-serve local ads with a budget you control. See the section for business above.
Screens shown throughout this page are from the current TumaChat build with demo data.