%202.png)
How ThirdWay Partners replaced manual phone screening with a three-stage WhatsApp application for an agricultural credit line in Mozambique, and saw its first loans approved.
How ThirdWay Partners replaced manual phone screening with a three-stage WhatsApp application for an agricultural credit line in Mozambique, and saw its first loans approved.
In short
ThirdWay Partners, which works with development funders and lenders to get finance to small businesses in Africa, replaced phone screening with a three-stage WhatsApp application on Yazi for an agricultural credit line in Mozambique. Between October 2025 and August 2026, 272 applicants entered eligibility screening and 36 submitted complete document packs in the chat. The first loans were approved in January 2026.
ThirdWay Partners works with development funders and lenders to get finance to small businesses in Africa. In Mozambique it runs applicant screening for a credit line for agricultural businesses.
Every applicant has to be checked for eligibility, taken through a due diligence questionnaire and asked for supporting documents before a lender can assess them. Before Yazi, ThirdWay's team did much of that by phone, one business at a time.
Each applicant meant calls to explain the programme, ask the questions and chase the answers.
A list of hundreds of firms is too long to screen quickly by hand.
Supporting documents arrived at different times, through different channels.
The team needed to see which applicants were eligible, stuck or ready for the lender.
Yazi set up the application as three linked WhatsApp studies: eligibility screening, a due diligence questionnaire and document upload, all in the same chat. Applicants who didn't qualify at eligibility were told straight away.
Every stage ran in WhatsApp, so applicants could move through the process without waiting for a call.
Illustrative screen showing how the conversation worked. Not a real participant.
The People tab shows which stage each applicant has reached. Applicant details are hidden in this illustration.
Applicants at each stage of the WhatsApp application
Participants who entered and completed each stage
Between October 2025 and August 2026, 272 applicants entered the eligibility stage, 145 the due diligence stage and 105 the document stage, and 36 submitted complete document packs. ThirdWay's team could see where every applicant stood without making a call.
In January 2026 ThirdWay reported the first loans approved through the credit line, and that it had shown the process to three microfinance institutions in Zimbabwe that it supports.
“It's a list of hundreds of firms, and Yazi is just a link: they answer the questionnaire and we get the information we need.”
“Overall the feedback on Yazi has been really good.”
How the work grew
| Phone screening | Yazi on WhatsApp | |
|---|---|---|
| First contact | A call to each applicant | One link, shared with the whole list |
| Questions | Asked and noted by staff | Answered by the applicant, at any hour |
| Documents | Chased by phone and email | Uploaded in the same chat |
| Pipeline | Pieced together by the team | Every applicant's stage in one view |
| Team time | Spent on calls | Spent reviewing applications |
A screening process that scales to hundreds of applicants and gives the team a live view of the pipeline. ThirdWay has recommended it to other lenders and is proposing it for its next programme.
Small agricultural businesses could apply from a phone they already use, at a time that suited them, and hear quickly whether they qualified.
Yazi does provide a lot more scalability than most other channels, so I'm pushing quite hard to get you guys in there.
Screening loan applicants is a structured conversation repeated hundreds of times. On WhatsApp it runs in parallel, stage by stage, and leaves ThirdWay's team to spend its time reviewing the businesses that apply.
Yes. ThirdWay Partners runs eligibility screening, a due diligence questionnaire and document upload as three linked WhatsApp conversations on Yazi. Applicants answer from their own phone at any hour, and those who don't qualify at eligibility are told straight away.
Between October 2025 and August 2026, 272 applicants entered the eligibility stage, 145 the due diligence stage and 105 the document stage, and 36 submitted complete document packs.
Yazi's People tab shows which stage each applicant has reached, alongside funnel reports, so the team can follow the pipeline without making calls.
Screening hundreds of applicants by phone?
Book a 30-minute demo →