Terms and conditions

1. What M-Changisha is

M-Changisha is software that helps groups in Tanzania collect contributions — for weddings, funerals, medical bills, harambee, michezo, welfare funds and shared goals — and keep a record every member can see.

M-Changisha is not a bank. It takes no deposits, pays no interest and lends no money. Payments are carried by licensed mobile money and payment providers. The money a group collects belongs to the group, not to M-Changisha.

2. Your account

Committee members sign in with their phone number and a one-time code sent by SMS. Contributors do not need an account.

You must be 18 or older to create a group or serve on a committee, and the phone number you use must be yours.

Keep your PIN and login codes to yourself. Nobody from M-Changisha will ever ask for them. Anything approved with your PIN is treated as done by you.

3. Groups and committees

Whoever creates a group confirms that it is real and that they are authorised to collect for it. A msiba must be for a real bereavement, collected with the family's permission.

The committee decides how the group's money is used and answers to its members and contributors for it. A group may write its own rules; members accept them when they join, and the version each member accepted is kept. M-Changisha is not a party to a group's rules.

Leadership stays inside the group: only the sitting chair can hand the chair to someone else.

4. Contributions

Contributions are paid by mobile money from M-Pesa, Mixx by Yas, Airtel Money, and HaloPesa. You confirm each payment with your own PIN on your phone; M-Changisha never sees it.

Every successful contribution gets a receipt. A contribution is a gift to the group: once received it is the group's money, and questions about it go first to the group's committee.

Cash handed to a treasurer can be recorded too, but it only counts once a second committee member has confirmed it.

If a payment fails or is reversed by the provider, no contribution is recorded.

5. Fees

There is no signup fee, no monthly fee and no fee to create a group. M-Changisha earns only when money comes in. The rates in force today:

Events: weddings, send-offs, medical bills and others

2.5% of each contribution, never more than TZS 50,000 on one contribution

Msiba (condolences)

No fee

Harambee

2.5% of each contribution, never more than TZS 50,000 on one contribution

Pamoja (a shared goal)

2.5% of each contribution, never more than TZS 50,000 on one contribution

Michezo (rotating savings)

No fee

Welfare funds

No fee

In force since 22 September 2026.

Example: on a contribution of TZS 10,000 the fee is TZS 250.

Unless the committee chooses otherwise, the contributor pays the fee on top of their contribution, so the group receives the full amount. The committee may instead have the fee taken from the collection. Either way, the fee is shown before anyone pays.

The payment provider also keeps 2.5% of each collection; this comes out of the money credited to the group. Taking money out of a mobile wallet as cash is charged by the network, not by M-Changisha.

A group pays the fees that were in force on the day it was created. If our fees change, the new fees apply only to groups created afterwards.

6. SMS messages

Every group receives 5 SMS messages free. Further messages cost TZS 300 each, bought in advance by the committee. Bought messages stay with the group.

Messages go only to people the group has added, and always carry the group's name. To keep anyone from being flooded, nobody receives more than 1 message a day or 4 a week from a group, a group can set at most 8 reminders for each event, and no reminders are sent between 21:00 and 07:00.

7. Payouts

Money leaves a group only to the payout number its committee has set, and every payout needs the approval of two different committee members, each with their own PIN.

An approved payout is held for 24 hours before it is sent, and every committee member is told, so a mistake can be stopped. For a msiba organised by a verified leader the hold is 2 hours.

The smallest payout is TZS 50,000; for a msiba it is TZS 5,000.

We may pause a payout if we suspect fraud, if the law requires it, or while the payment provider is unavailable.

8. What is not allowed

You may not use M-Changisha to:

• collect for a group, event or bereavement that is not real, or that you are not authorised to collect for;
• commit fraud, launder money, finance anything illegal or hide where money came from;
• send messages to people who have not agreed to hear from the group, or harass anyone;
• get into someone else's account, or interfere with the system.

Anyone can report a group from its page. A group that receives several reports may be suspended while we look into it. We may suspend or close any group or account that breaks these terms, and share information with the payment provider, the police or other authorities where the law requires.

9. Your information

We keep what is needed to run the service: phone numbers, the names people give, contributions, pledges, payouts and messages. A contributor may give a name or stay anonymous on the group's page.

We do not sell your information. We share it only with the payment and SMS providers who carry out the service, and with authorities where the law requires.

The group's ledger is permanent: mistakes are corrected with a new entry, never deleted. Records of money received and paid out therefore cannot be erased on request.

10. Our responsibility

We work to keep M-Changisha available and accurate, but mobile networks and payment providers sometimes fail or delay. We are not responsible for losses caused by those providers, by a committee's decisions about the group's money, or by someone using your phone or PIN.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under the laws of Tanzania that cannot be taken away.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the current version. If a change affects you materially, we will tell you before it applies. A fee change never applies to a group that already exists.

12. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. If something goes wrong, contact us first and we will try to put it right; if that fails, the courts of Tanzania decide.