Not sure if this is useful to anyone here, but I know some people in Malawi want Spotify Premium and don't have a USD card to pay for it. I have a few available spots on my Spotify Premium Family plan for MWK 3,000/month. If you've been looking for an easier way to get Premium, send me a message.
The best thing I did yesterday was comment on a TikTok video that talked about the problem my product is solving.
I did it late at night before I slept. I woke up and found a notification saying the creator liked and replied to my comment. I checked it, the creator wanted an explanation of how my product works. I replied to her, she then liked it.
I did not post any link or whatever just the 'how it works' explanation. Honestly, this made me feel good and it motivated me to keep pushing after seeing someone complain about the problem my tool is solving when I thought people wouldn't care about it.
My advice: just don't give up when you have no user or marketing is hard.
Seeing posts like this keeps reminding me why I started building this in the first place.
I’ve personally been scammed before buying something online, and over time I’ve kept seeing more and more Malawians sharing the same stories — people sending money then getting blocked, fake Facebook Marketplace sellers disappearing, mobile money reversals after goods are shipped, fake proof of payment screenshots… it’s honestly getting out of hand.
That frustration is what pushed me to start building Ocickle Safe.
I’m a uni student in Malawi currently working on an escrow platform designed specifically for online buying and selling in Malawi.
The idea is simple. Instead of sending money directly to someone you don’t know and hoping they’re honest, the buyer deposits the money into Ocickle Safe first. The seller sees the payment is secured and delivers the item. The money is only released after the buyer confirms they received what they paid for. If the goods never arrive or something goes wrong, the money can be refunded instead of just disappearing.
I know this won’t stop every type of scam in Malawi. Forex scams and fake investments are a different issue entirely. But a huge number of scams happening on Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp groups, and online buying/selling pages are simply trust problems between buyers and sellers. That’s exactly the problem Ocickle Safe is being built to solve.
I’d genuinely love to hear from people here: Have you ever been scammed buying or selling online in Malawi? And what would have made you feel safer during that transaction? Mumapanga chani when you've been scammed? What do you do when ogula akakhala sakukukhulupirira when selling online?
We’re still in the building stage right now, but launch is coming soon. If this sounds like something you’d actually use, or something people around you need, you can join the waiting list here: safe.ocickle.com