How Sauti East Africa Reached 162,000+ Women with Market Intelligence via WhatsApp

Closing the digital information gap for women in trade across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Somalia through Turn.io's WhatsApp Business API

WA
  • 162K+
    Users Reached
  • 4
    Countries
  • 615K+
    Information Searches
  • $13
    Trader Weekly Savings
This case study forms part of the CWL Accelerator, developed by Turn.io and supported by the Gates Foundation. The accelerator helps social enterprises build chat solutions using Turn.io's WhatsApp technology to empower women, expand their agency and incomes, and provide a framework for delivering impactful chat solutions at scale.
Discover how Sauti East Africa transformed access to agricultural, market, and climate information for women farmers and traders across East Africa, enabling them to identify new markets, increase incomes, and trade safely through WhatsApp.

About Sauti:

Empowering Women to Trade
Using technology to empower women-led businesses has ripple effects that can help create lasting change for households, communities, and market systems. It's why women as traders, producers, and customers are central to Sauti's products, services, and delivery models.

Sauti East Africa is a social enterprise using technology to improve access to agricultural, market, and climate information for women in "low-technology" environments across East Africa. Through low-cost mobile channels — USSD, SMS, and now WhatsApp — Sauti empowers women-owned micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) to trade safely, legally, and profitably.
Impact at a Glance

24%

Identified new products to trade

90%

Identified new markets

76%

Aware of border clearance

57%

Aware of applicable taxes

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 5:
Gender Equality

Empowering women by expanding access to timely, localised information and market participation

SDG 8:
Decent Work & Growth

Fostering inclusive and sustainable livelihoods by supporting income growth across East Africa

The Challenge:

Digital and Market Exclusion
Farmers and traders in East Africa face major barriers to accessing climate forecasts, market prices, and business support. Without this information, women smallholders are often excluded from decision-making, leaving their livelihoods vulnerable to unpredictable weather and market shocks.
The Information Gap Reality
Millions of women farmers lack access to reliable, localised information
Limited digital literacy restricts ability to use digital tools
Poor connectivity in rural and peri-urban areas
Reliance on informal networks for business decisions
Information asymmetry perpetuates inequality in negotiations
Who is Most Affected?
Women smallholder farmers, agricultural traders, and micro-entrepreneurs in rural and peri-urban communities with limited access to digital tools and market data are most impacted by these information gaps.
Why is This Urgent?
nformation asymmetry perpetuates inequality. When women farmers lack access to climate and market information, they are less able to plan, negotiate prices, or manage risks — undermining income stability and climate resilience.
The Opportunity: The growth of smartphone access in some regions, especially among younger rural women, presented a valuable opportunity for Sauti to enhance user experience and engagement through WhatsApp — a crucial step toward moving beyond one-way data sharing to dynamic, conversational learning experiences.
Sauti's Theory of Change
Sauti's theory of change is grounded in the belief that access to relevant, localised information empowers women to make better decisions for their farms, businesses, and families. Combining accessible technology with user-centred design, Sauti enables women farmers and traders to gain the knowledge, confidence, and agency to respond to market and climate shifts in real time.

When women have timely access to data and the digital skills to use it, they can strengthen their livelihoods, reduce risk, and participate more equitably in agricultural markets.

The Transformation Pathway

Inputs

Climate and market data, technology infrastructure, training, partnerships with agricultural organisations

Activities

Delivering market prices, weather forecasts, exchange rates, and business tips via WhatsApp and USSD

Outputs

Women gain real-time information, digital skills, and improved decision-making capacity

Outcomes

Increased digital tool use, improved market access, new buyers, stronger agency in decisions

Impact

Increased income, enhanced climate resilience, sustainable participation in agricultural markets

The solution

Real-Time Agricultural Intelligence via WhatsApp
Initially, Sauti's services were delivered primarily through USSD and SMS to accommodate users with basic phones. However, as smartphone access grew, especially among younger rural women, Sauti recognised an opportunity to enhance user experience and engagement through WhatsApp.
The platform's interactive features allowed Sauti to provide richer, more personalised information flows — moving beyond one-way data sharing to dynamic, conversational learning experiences. This shift enabled women farmers not only to receive forecasts and price updates but to ask questions, seek advice, and engage directly with the service.

"Where on earth would I have found the time to explore AI and WhatsApp without the accelerator? I don't think I would have."

Lance Hadley

CEO, Sauti East Africa

How It Works

01.

Connect &

Choose Language

Users connect on WhatsApp and select their preferred language (English or Kiswahili)

02.

Request

Information

They can request weather forecasts, market prices, and exchange rates

03.

Receive

Business Tips

The chatbot provides business tips and digital literacy lessons tailored to women MSMEs

04.

Stay

Updated

Reminders and nudges prompt users to check new information or market updates

05.

In-Person

Training

In-person sessions train users on how to use the chatbot effectively

01.

Connect &

Choose Language

Users connect on WhatsApp and select their preferred language (English or Kiswahili)

02.

Request

Information

They can request weather forecasts, market prices, and exchange rates

03.

Receive

Business Tips

The chatbot provides business tips and digital literacy lessons tailored to women MSMEs

04.

Stay

Updated

Reminders and nudges prompt users to check new information or market updates

05.

In-Person

Training

In-person sessions train users on how to use the chatbot effectively

Core Features

📊

Market
Prices

Daily updates on key crops across multiple markets

🌤️ 

Weather
Forecasts

Real-time data to guide farming decisions and planning

💼 

Business &
Digital Skills

Practical guidance tailored specifically for women MSMEs

💱 

Exchange Rates & Trade Regulations

Empowering cross-border traders with current information

🌍

Multilingual
Content

Available in English and Kiswahili for accessibility

🤖

AI-Powered Intent Recognition

Helps chatbot understand natural user questions

What Makes It Innovative: The Sauti WhatsApp service combines low-tech inclusivity with AI-supported delivery, ensuring that women in even the most rural areas can access valuable information and support. Sauti's hybrid model (WhatsApp and USSD) maintains accessibility for users without smartphones.

The Results:

Measurable Impact on Women's Livelihoods
During the accelerator, Sauti scaled rapidly across Kenya and expanded into three additional countries — Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda — introducing AI-enabled WhatsApp solutions for agricultural users.
Accelerator Period Results
New users onboarded

58,192

Rapid scale

WhatsApp engagement

39%

Channel adoption

Women trained

198

Skills development

Found new buyers

30%

Market expansion

WhatsApp use for business

27%

Digital adoption

Average income rise

14.4%

USD $26.60 increase

"Sauti is like a secret partner in my business – it's there to give me information before I go to the market and help me estimate my profit. Before I even leave my house, I know the price of groundnuts in Gulu and Lira, the current exchange rate, and the amount of tax I will pay."— Edna Mudibo, Cross-Border Trader, Busia, Kenya

Beyond the Numbers:

The Accelerator Journey
Participation in the CWL Accelerator proved transformative for Sauti.

The team gained new expertise in conversation design, AI integration, go-to-market (GTM) strategies, and UX frameworks. Through peer learning, one-to-one coaching, and usability testing, Sauti also adopted influencer marketing for the first time, significantly improving onboarding and user engagement.

"Localised, contextualised content keeps users coming back. Hybrid support, digital plus on-ground training, works best."

— Lance Hadley, Sauti East Africa

📊

New WhatsApp + AI Offering

Launched for agriculture and trade

🌤️ 

New UX & GTM Frameworks

Adopted from Turn.io training

💼 

4 Countries

Expanded from Kenya to Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda

📢

40,000+ Reached

Through influencer marketing campaigns

💪

Confident Team

Built capability for pricing and selling AI-based services

Challenges and Lessons Learned
Sauti faced several key challenges, which were quickly overcome through innovative approaches:
Content Migration Delays
Challenge: Adapting legacy USSD data to new conversational formats

Solution: Systematic content restructuring for WhatsApp's interactive environment
Server Overload
Challenge: Systems overwhelmed after influencer campaigns

Solution: Server upgrades to improve performance and handle scale
Digital Literacy Gaps
Challenge: Low digital literacy among target users, especially rural women

Solution: Tutorial videos, social media demos, and local language integration
User Retention
Challenge: High turnover after initial chatbot use

Solution: Hybrid learning model combining in-person and digital training
The partnership with Turn.io also helped resolve technical constraints and improve AI model performance.

"We have created a robust playbook: training, measuring, refining. For many of these women, even small digitalisation gains are transformative because we're starting from accessibility barriers related to connectivity, digital literacy, and data quality."

Lance Hadley

CEO, Sauti East Africa

What's Next:

Scaling a Sustainable Impact Model
Looking ahead, Sauti aims to scale its chat services to reach over 100,000+ women smallholders and micro-entrepreneurs across East Africa, while deepening its use of AI-driven analytics for market insights and climate forecasting.

The organisation is strengthening partnerships with governments, donors, and NGOs to expand its ecosystem of digital support for women MSMEs.
Funding Sustainability
Sauti's current funding composition blends impact financing: approximately 70% of operations are funded through partnerships with development agencies and philanthropic organisations, and 30% are generated through consulting and research projects. This hybrid composition offers long-term viability while enabling Sauti to deliver measurable improvements in income, resilience, and agency for women.
Future Vision: Sauti has laid the foundation for an effective, replicable model for using digital chat services and AI to advance climate-smart agriculture and women's economic empowerment at scale across Africa.

Sauti is not just building a chatbot; we're building a sustainable model for digital inclusion at scale.

— Lance Hadley, CEO, Sauti East Africa

Conclusion

A Replicable Model for Women's Economic Empowerment
Sauti East Africa demonstrates how AI-enabled WhatsApp services can bridge information gaps for women farmers, transforming how they access markets, make decisions, and earn income.

The Chat for Women's Livelihoods Accelerator supported Sauti as it developed and iterated its chat-based solution. The accelerator also strengthened Sauti's technical capacity to expand across borders and unlocked measurable improvements in women's confidence, decision-making, and earnings.

Sauti has laid the foundation for an effective, replicable model for using digital chat services and AI to advance climate-smart agriculture and women's economic empowerment at scale across Africa.

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Through WhatsApp?

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