The Savers Money (SAVERSM)

The problem of access to  savings account is what we are  solving. It has impacted Nigeria with 85.57 million underbanked. Saversm implements a borderless and flexible solution that digitizes cash deposit and offers a 24/7 “DO-IT-YOURSELF” instant cash transfer, long/short-term savings and goverment to person (G2P) payments.  It allows cooperative societies to  form contribution cycles, contribute  money to members until the cycle completes. it uses Mobile Network Operators’ recharge Voucher (Pin) and 2G (USSD) code technologies for instant money deposit. This  leverages on the technology's universal availability, acceptability and accessibility to break the access to bank barrier for all people irrespective of location,literacy/numeracy levels, time and internet connectivity coverage. it promotes financial savings with convenience to the informal sector workers, ensuring transparency and accountability irrespective of people’s literacy and numeracy levels suitable for regions of limited internet coverage. it introduces regional savings and fund transfer  When scaled across West Africa.

 Our digital payment solution encourages the informal sector workers to savings in the most cost effective, seamless  and time efficient way, ensuring transparency and accountability irrespective of people’s literacy and numeracy levels suitable for regions of limited internet coverage. It digitizes the informal Daily/Periodic long/short-term savings system. It allows cooperative societies to elect a leader, form contribution cycles, contribute a certain amount of money to members until the cycle completes. The leader  guides his team. A digital payment system that uses an effective technology in regions of no/low internet connectivity, easy to use by people of low-literacy/numeracy levels, suitable for both Covid-19 and post Covid-19 era. It offers limitless access to bank time and location irrespective. According to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS, 2019), Nigeria has 85.57 million unbanked (45.57 million Dormant accounts and 40 million without bank account) which represent 43% of the total population in Nigeria and 350 million in 57% of the total population in Sub-Saharan African region and 2 billion people in the world. Lack of access to bank, cost of using alternative channels of banking, low literacy/numeracy levels, no digitized Do-It-Yourself 24/7 convenient cash deposit system, are the problems relating to our solution.

Our digitized cash payment/savings solution primarily targets the informal sector workers who do not have access to savings account, but receive cash payments for services rendered. The population in Nigeria is  40 million unbanked and 45.57 million dormant account. They are the missing middle people for instance; petty traders, laborer’s and technicians that are mostly paid with cash by their customers. In most cases, they may want to save the money, but the cost, time, literacy/numeracy level and internet connectivity to access the bank is not  most convenient for them. Saversm proposes a  digitized do-it-yourself cash savings system using the most  accessible and available technologies regionally. I have issued questionnaires to understand their needs and proposed on how to solve them. We engaged them through market feasibility study and asking if they would love to use the solution that saves them time, cost and life, their responses were  favorable. This solution will address the needs of the informal sector workers  by  providing a very low-cost, convenient, “Do -It-Yourself” cash deposit/ savings system, eradicating the time  and cost associated with  access to bank,  addressing the poor internet connectivity and low literacy/numeracy levels hindrances to access savings in most West African regions. 

The problem of  access to savings account, the lack of seamless digitized cash savings system for the informal savings circles that accounts regions of no internet connectivity occupied by people of low numeracy/literacy levels  led to the 85.57 million unbanked/account dormancy in Nigeria. The USSD and MNOs Voucher technologies adopted for digitized cash savings are readily available and accessible in the West African regions of no/low internet connectivity and the informal sector workers and people of low numeracy/literacy levels are conversant with it. Saversm encourages users to make daily/periodic savings of minimum amounts  of $0.28 (₦100) for a short/long-term plan. 

The uniqueness of our solution is the Cash digitization using MNOs voucher PIN. To solve the access to bank problem we accept MNOs voucher PIN as cash deposit into bank account. No existing Fintech company in  West Africa  accepts this system of digital payment. It is a very seamless, agent-less, contact less deposit. Our technology has wide coverage and requires little or no technical training and it offers cash deposit from home location and time irrespective. It reduces crowd in banking halls and puts the people safe from the dangers of Covid-19. Our competitors are of two categories; the voucher-to-cash and the fintech companies. Airtime to cash: zoranga, airtimeflip, MTN Share and Sell Aimtoget and Cheetahpay. Fintech companies: Nigeria has 250 Fintech companies operating four segments and nine clusters. The segment we belong to is the digital banking segment, with interest in 2 clusters; Payment infrastructure and digital retail payments.  The Payment Infrastructure has (Flutterwave, Kora, Interswitch) which digitizes payments for banked and underbanked as our competitors and the digital Saving (PiggyVest, Cowriewise, Ribi , Mkobo) which Combines discipline and flexibility for individuals to grow savings as our competitors too. Flaws of their system: Not Automated, High Transaction Fee, 3) Not for People of Low numeracy and low literacy levels and not for regions of no/low internet connectivity. Our system addresses the flaws of the existing systems by proposing an automated system that allows this transaction seamlessly by simply dialing a USSD code and at the lowset cost. 

The USSD code and MNO voucher are already in use. Banks send money from one bank account to another bank account and other transaction using USSD codes. While MNO voucher is also used for recharge airtime activation. Our solution is to use the two to digitize cash payment into the bank account or e-wallet. The informal sector workers are mostly paid in cash. our solution helps them to save the cash in the most convenient, seamless and cost-effective way. SAVERSM will operate using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code “*333#” for the first phase and latter a mobile application that will mask the functions USSD code to give ease to smart phone users. SAVERSM will have the following ‘features/option/menu’ when dial for example *333# SAVERSM Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Display Menu: Register, Deposit/fund, Cash out, Enquire, Transfer Features of SAVERSM : Menu consisting of customer profile including bank details, transaction history, wallet balance , SAVERSM CENTRAL WALLET where total amount of credit of all customers are reflected and stored/recorded on daily, weekly and monthly basis. Note: it is the total amount of money in this wallet that will be paid for by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in accordance with the terms of the partnership.  Savers Money bank account details: This is to enable the program have access to bank account in which cash transaction processing fee of 2% of the processed amount shall be deposited.

our solution is expected to have a very positive impact to the access to bank problem, and get the unbanked 85.57 million Nigerian into the banking system, encourage more participation in the digital informal savings system (SAVERSM). It will bring banking to every home in a do -it -yourself cash deposit approach. Market women, street hawkers can comfortably make fixed nano savings on the saversm platform  for as low as (₦100 or $0.28). The people value their time and loves convenience, saversm has offered them convenience in cash deposit, low cost savings and limitless access to bank. costumers feel well treated offered  banking services in the most convenient way. they also feel frustrated if any of these is taken away from them in the process of rendering services to them. The said people especially Nigerians will pay any token in other to by-pass protocols and get things done quickly, this happens even in the banking hall. Nigerians like to save their money in other to grow their income but access to banking hall for safety becomes a huge hindrance. In this part of the continent, one hardly goes to bank to deposit less than a thousand Naira (less than $3). According the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a report about poverty and inequality from September 2018 to October 2019, said 40 percent of people in the continent's most populous country lived below its poverty line of 137,430 naira ($381.75) a year. It said that it represents 82.9 million people. SAVERSM is here to help them plan their way out of poverty by making fixed deposit/contribution of any amount from ₦100 ($0.28)  in a manner that aligns with the cashless policy and social distancing regulations, also to keep them from contacting COVID-19. Saverm will also make life better for these people through the savings plan or cooperative society scheme available on th platform. It will increase savings in the side of the bank and it will encourage the actualization of the CBN vision 2020. 

Our solution is user centric because it works by dialing simple codes for example (*333#) on the mobile phone. It considers the low-literacy and numeracy levels of our target market who reside in regions of low/no internet connectivity by using mobile network operators’ voucher and USSD code.  The informal sector workers in West Africa are very a conversant with mobile network operators’ voucher and USSD code technologies, Saversm adopted the same technology for cash digitization applications for seamless and secured savings (digitization of the informal daily/periodic savings system) at a very affordable cost. Our solution can be incorporate into a social protection programs and delivery systems in West Africa because users operate an electronic wallet with their mobile phone numbers as the unique identifier. This can be used for the incorporation of the unbanked and financially excluded people in West Africa into a low cost, reliable and secure long-term and short-term saving scheme. This e-wallet can be used to receive, send and save money daily/ periodically, we have made the least savable amount as low as $0.28 (₦100) on which no transaction fee will be charged at deposit. This will help eradicate poverty by encouraging savings by low income earners. The leader  of the  informal saving circles, helps to guide the low literate customers enrolled and get referrals on their contributions. We have offered them a digitized means to manage their clients on our platform, saving him the cost and dangers of meeting the clients on daily/weekly basis. 

 Our solution are user friendly and can easily be incorporate into a social protection program and delivery system in West Africa because users operate an electronic wallet with their mobile phone numbers as the unique identifier.  The government can decide to fund every operator of the e-wallet on Saversm with trader money to boost entrepreneurship. or send starters kit to individuals personally. Social intervention funds can be sent, or Covid-19 palliatives can be send to citizens of Nigeria and west Africa through the platform without worries. This can be used for the incorporation of the unbanked and financially excluded people in West Africa into a low cost, reliable and secure long-term and short-term saving scheme informal sector workers. This e-wallet can be used to receive, send and save money daily/ periodically. We have made the least savable amount as low as $0.28 (₦100) on which no transaction fee will be charged at deposit. we will be adding 5000 users a month and will serve more than sixty thousand (60,000) users within the next one year and over 40 million users in five years.  The leader  of the  informal saving circles, helps to guide the low literate customers enrolled and get referrals on their contributions. We have offered them a digitized means to manage their clients on our platform, saving him the cost and dangers of meeting the clients on daily/weekly basis. 

Our solution is a new application of an existing open standards technologies (MNO voucher and USSD). It is therefore interoperable both backward/forward compactible with other technologies and APIs are open and provided for data portability.

Aside that we are regionally scalable, the use of Mobile Network Operators’ recharge Voucher (Pin) for cash deposit is the novelty in our proposition.  Why we propose Mobile Network Operators’ recharge Voucher (PIN) for money deposit is to leverage its universal availability to break the access to bank barrier for all people irrespective of location, time and internet connectivity coverage. We also adopted the second generation (2G) services of the mobile network operators due to its wide coverage to all nooks and crannies of the region and to include the poor rural dwellers. Our technology and partners are available in all the countries of the region; hence the digital platform is flexible interoperable across the region for both COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era. It offers limitless access to bank, time and location irrespective.

Our solution accounts for low connectivity environments and for users with low literacy and numeracy levels by the use a second generation (2G) network technology (USSD) which has wide coverage and the people are very conversant with the technology, it requires little or no technical training and operates optimally in regions of low/no internet connectivity. It offers cash deposit from home location and time irrespective. The use of Mobile Network Operators’ recharge Voucher (PIN) for cash deposit is the novelty in our proposition.  Why we propose Mobile Network Operators’ recharge Voucher (PIN) for money deposit is to leverage its universal availability to break the access to bank barrier for all people irrespective of location, time and internet connectivity coverage. We also adopted the second generation (2G) services of the mobile network operators due to its wide coverage to all nooks and crannies of the region and to include the poor rural dwellers. Our technology and partners are available in all the countries of the region; hence the digital platform is flexible interoperable across the region for both COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era. It offers limitless access to bank time and location irrespective. With the cooperative society features that allows users to Collaborate with other users in their close circles or committee of friends, elect a leader, choose a contribution cycle, contribute to one another until the cycle completes. The leader could be operators of the informal Akawo saving cirles, who can get his customers enrolled and get referrals bonuses.

We are currently serving ten (10) people, we will be adding 5000 users a month and will serve more than sixty thousand (60,000) users within the next one year and over 40 million users in five years. The forty (40) million users target is possible using a referral method we have coded named financial managers. The financial managers are agents who operate the traditional informal saving schemes. With the cooperative society features that allows users to Collaborate with other users in their close circles or committee of friends, elect a leader, choose a contribution cycle, contribute to one another until the cycle completes. The leader could be operators of the informal Akawo saving cirles, who can get his customers enrolled and get referals on their contributions.We have offered them a digitized means to manage their clients on our platform, saving him the cost and dangers of meeting the clients on daily/weekly basis. Expand to all West African Countries offering the most cost-effective transaction in the Fintech ecosystem by taking 2 countries in a year.

Our goal within the next year is to lunch our product, obtain the licenses and scale our customers base to over sixty thousand (60,000) users within and process $180,000 worth of transactions on daily basis. In the next five years, we would scale our staff base to 40 people, maintain professionalism by training and retraining the staff for effectiveness. we will be adding 5000 users a month and will serve more than sixty thousand (60,000) users within the next one year and over 40 million users in five years. The forty (40) million users target is possible using a referral method we have coded named financial managers. The financial managers are agents who operate the traditional informal saving schemes. With the cooperative society features that allows users to Collaborate with other users in their close circles or committee of friends, elect a leader, choose a contribution cycle, contribute to one another until the cycle completes. The leader could be operators of the informal Akawo saving cirles, who can get his customers enrolled and get referals on their contributions.We have offered them a digitized means to manage their clients on our platform, saving him the cost and dangers of meeting the clients on daily/weekly basis. Expand to all West African Countries offering the most cost-effective transaction in the Fintech ecosystem by taking 2 countries in a year. Expand to all West African Countries offering the most cost-effective transaction in the Fintech ecosystem.

The following barriers exist in the next one year:

License barriers: We require operational license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). If this license is delayed or not granted, it will hinder the goals in the first year of operation.

Financial: The licenses require a lot of money, which presently slows the rate of development of this business.

Technical: The USSD codes integration requires telecommunication experts to enable its deployment, we depend on their expertise for the deployment.

Legal: The absence of the Central bank approval makes the system seem illegal.

Market barriers: 

License barriers: We have approached the Central bank of Nigeria with the application for approval of our business idea. We have an alternative of printing our own voucher for the same business if the CBN do not grant the license for us to use mobile network operators Vouchers, by so doing, we will navigate the license barrier and kickstart.

Technical: The USSD codes integration requires telecommunication experts to enable its deployment. We depend on their expertise for the deployment. To navigate this barrier, funds are required. We hope to navigate this barrier using the funds raised in this program to kick start.

Legal: The absence of the Central bank approval makes the system seem illegal. We can legalize the program by the use of our separate voucher instead of the MNOs voucher.

4 people.

  Yes. We are well positioned to deliver the solution with our team of professionals in web development, Mobile Application development, Telecommunication Engineer and human resource specialist. This is because, task of this nature requires professionals. Secondly, because of the need to provide lasting solution of yelling and complain of our people due to cash deposit and other forms of inconveniences.

We are formalizing partnership with the major Mobile Network Operators and the banks in Nigeria. We are working with the mobile network operators in a kind of partnership where their recharge card PIN will be used for cash deposit and they will purchase it back and recycle it in a manner that it cannot be reused by same user in the same region. We have also applied to obtain license with the Central Bank of Nigeria to authorize the Mobile Network Operators to buy the vouchers from us. This is key to further discussions on the partnership. So, we await the License from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Our business model profits from transaction fee charged  customers for using the digital payment system. Our transaction charge is computed by ($0.14+1% of transaction worth) for a single transaction. The constant ($0.14) enables us to settle all taxes and vendors applied to the business transaction. We primarily provide direct digital payment services to individual customers who primarily belong to the informal sector (irregular and low-income earners) regarded as the unbanked and financially excluded. They are majorly the people who receive cash payment, do not have time to access bank and need seamless access and limitless access to savings account in a “Do-It-Yourself” approach. The financial sustainability path lies in the number of loyal customers,the employees, investment strategy and business structure. Our goal is to penetrate the market using low pricing and boost a customer base to 160 million users within 5 years of operation. If we process two hundred thousand (200,000) transaction worth $1000 per day. Our transaction charge is computed by (0.14+1% of transaction worth) for a single transaction; this equals $(10.14) multiplied by transaction frequency 200000(10.14) equals $2,028,000. We project net profit of $2.03 million dollars per day. This will sustain our expansion plan to all West African country and beyond. Therefore, our financial sustainability is dependent on the volume of transaction processed and we will focus on ease of use, accessibility,and low-price penetration strategy to acquire and grow our customer base.

The path to our business financial sustainability is traced to the transaction fee charged our customers.The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and business structure
Our goal is to penetrate the market using low pricing and boost a customer base to 160 million users within 5 years of operation. If we process two hundred thousand (200,000) transaction worth $1000 per day. Our transaction charge is computed by (0.14+1% of transaction worth) for a single transaction this equals $(10.14) multiplied by transaction frequency 200000(10.14) equals $2,028,000. We project net profit of $2.03million dollars per day. This will sustain our expansion plan to all west African country and beyond. Therefore, our financial sustainability is dependent on the volume of transaction processed and we will focus on ease of use, accessibility to the customers and low-price penetration strategy to acquire and grow our customer base.

We have not raised funds except our personal savings, which have been using to facilitate applications for license and other registrations. We seek to raise funds to meet the requirement of the central bank of Nigeria for basic license shareholders fund of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars ($280,000), USSD code allocation license, office rent and equipment $40,000, technology cost ($250,000) and staff salary $45,000. 

Yes. we seek $1million dollars in :

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from the bank
• Grants 
•  Equity investments. 

Our estimated expenses for 2020 thousand dollars (100,000), USSD code a ($280,000), USSD code allocation license, office rent and equipment $40,000, technology cost ($250,000) and staff salary $45,000. 

Our passion to solve the financial inclusion challenge by granting access to  savings account to the unbanked and financially excluded informal sector  workers through the use of MNO voucher and USSD technologies which is scalable in West Africa and serves people of low numeracy and literacy levels who reside in regions of low/no internet connectivity inspired us to apply for the WURI Mission Billion Challenge  West Africa Prize. Winning this challenge will help us to navigate through all the barriers facing us in this business. This includes financial barriers, licenses barriers and technical barriers.

SAVERSM is a program that is setup and installed into Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) program system. It is owned and managed entirely by our company. The system involves Customer(s), SAVERSM  and two institutions namely Bank and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). The institutions (Bank and MNOs) are in partnership with SAVERSM  to deliver cash deposit services and other financial transactions to customers at their convenience. Figure 1, illustrates its operation. The scope of this partnership between the mobile network operator (MTN) and SAVERSM is a company SAVERSM  in a company (MNO) to give birth to MNO-SAVERM® (i.e. MTN-SAVERSM )  Mobile Network Operators (i.e. MTN) is almost invisible as the program will be managed and controlled by SAVERSM  operators. Therefore, SAVERSM  is a company under an MNO like MTN. She is in partnership with MTN to acquire/have SAVERSM  program created and built into mobile network operator (MTN) networking system in order to deliver cash deposit services to customer. 

SAVERSM  is a program that is setup and installed into Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) program system. It is owned and managed entirely by our company. The system involves Customer(s), SAVERSM  and two institutions namely Bank and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). The institutions (Bank and MNOs) are in partnership with SAVERSM to deliver cash deposit services and other financial transactions to customers at their convenience. Figure 1, illustrates its operation. The scope of this partnership between the mobile network operator (MTN) and SAVERSM  is a company SAVERSM  in a company (MNO) to give birth to MNO-SAVERSM  (i.e. MTN-SAVERSM ). Mobile Network Operators (i.e. MTN) is almost invisible as the program will be managed and controlled by SAVERSM  operators. Therefore, SAVERSM  is a company under an MNO like MTN. She is in partnership with MTN to acquire/have SAVERSM  program created and built into mobile network operator (MTN) networking system in order to deliver cash deposit services to customer.