AFRICAN MONEY

BETWEEN 2021 AND 2022, I WAS INVOLVED IN FINANCIAL INCLUSION PROJECT OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SEDIN, GIZ AND GERMAN COOPERATION BODY. DURING THIS 12 MONTHS EXERCISE, WE WENT INTO THE STREETS, MARKETS, VILLAGES AND CITIES. WE DISCOVERED THAT THERE IS A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION THAT WERE UNBANKED. MANY OF THESE FROM THE NORTHERN PART OF NIGERIA KEPT THEIR MONIES IN THEIR HOMES. OVER 30% OF THESE PEOPLE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE BANK ACCOUNTS WITH ANY COMMERCIAL BANK WHILE OVER 20 % HAVE ACCOUNTS BUT HAD BECOME DORMANT. MORE THAN 15% WERE EXCLUDED BECAUSE OF WHERE THEY LIVE. BANKS WERE FEW IN THOSE PLACES BECAUSE OF BANDITS, INSURGENCY ETC. SO, IT WAS DIFFICULT TO BANK.

FURTHERMORE, IN 2023 BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA INTRODUCED NEW CURRENCY AND WITHDREW THE OLD ONES IN ATTEMPT TO GET NIGERIANS TO EMBRACE CASHLESS POLICY. THIS BROUGHT UNTOLD HARDSHIP ON NIGERIANS AND ALMOST CRUMBLED BUSINESS ESPECIALLY THOSE RUN BY MSMEs AND SMEs. IT QUICKLY BECAME OBVIOUS THAT THE TRADITIONAL BANKS DIDN'T HAVE THE TECHNICAL STRENGHT TO COPE WITH THE POPULATION. THEREFORE, AFRICAN MONEY WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN DEVELOPED IS SET TO BE LAUNCHED THROUGH A PROJECT LIKE MIT SOLVE. 

AFRICAN MONEY HAS THE FOLLOWING FEATURES:

1. WALLET CREATION: users can create wallets in multiple currencies.
2. FUNDING THE WALLET: They can receive money into their wallet and can send money from their wallets to other users on 79wallet platform. They can deposit money into their wallet by using debit cards, bank transfers or request money from other African money users.
3. WITHDRAWING FROM THE WALLET: Users can withdraw money from the wallet into their bank account by linking their bank account to the wallet.
4. VIRTUAL BANK ACCOUNTS: Users can create virtual bank account linked to a commercial bank account that African money is in partnership with. They can send and receive money into the virtual bank account. We are leveraging agent banking feature of our partnering bank to achieve this.
5. VIRTUAL DEBIT CARDS: Users can create virtual cards and connect them to their wallets. They can fund their virtual cards from their wallet and use same for online transactions.
6. VOUCHERS: African money users can create vouchers and send them to their family and friends. The vouchers can be used to redeem debts. The beneficiaries can load those cards into their wallets and use them for transactions or withdraw them.
7. BILLS PAYMENT: African Money users can buy airtime, data, dstv, gotv, electricity subscription etc using money in their wallet.
8. MERCHANT/ECOMMERCE INTERGRATION: Businesses and Individuals can integrate our APIs to collect money on their website.
9. PAYMENT LINKS: Our users can create payment links and use that to request for money from family, friends and customers.
10. REFERRAL LINKS: Our users can create referral links and make money while inviting people to use our wallet.
11. ESCROW SERVICES: Users can leverage the ESCROW services of our platform to engage in business with individuals and businesses while we hold the money for the duration of the business transaction. We release the money when the job is delivered and both parties are satisfied. We
wish to leverage our relationship with partnering bank who is already involved with NDIC and subsequently build a direct relationship with NDIC to provide this service. We have a COT free account opened with UBA. It is an account that does not yield profit. It only enables users pay in
and withdraw their money through African Money platform.
12. BILLS PAYMENT: Airtime, Data, Cable subscription, Electricity subscription etc.

13. QR CODE: People can make payments through scanning of the QR CODE. This makes it easy for quick payment in stores etc

THE SOLUTION WAS CREATED FOR NIGERIANS, NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA, AFRICANS AND GLOBAL USERS. THE PLATFORM ALLOWS WALLETS AND PAYMENTS TO BE MADE IN ANY CURRENCY OF THE WORLD - USD, EURO, GBP, NGN, KEN SHILLING, GH CEDI ETC

WE HAVE A TEAM WITH GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF THE FINANCIAL CLIME AND HAVE WORKED IN BANKING SECTOR AND HAVE BEEN INVOLVED DIRECTLY WITH SOME OTHER FINTECH PLATFORMS:

1. EMMANUEL DAMISA (THE FOUNDER) A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER, WITH 1 YEAR EXPERIENCE WITH KOGI STATE MINISTRY OF FINANCE, 1 YEAR INVOLVEMENT WITH THE CBN FINANCIAL INCLUSION PROJECT. OVER 15 YEARS IN MANAGERIAL POSITIONS.

2. ADISA ABE OLUWOLE (THE COMPANY SECRETARY/LAWYER) WITH OVER 15 YEARS AS A DEBT COLLECTOR. A CONSULTANT WITH OPAY FINTECH COMPANY IN DEBT COLLECTION.

3. ANTHONY OKIWELU WITH OVER 20 YEARS WORKING WITH UBA, ACCESS BANK COMMERCIAL BANKS IN RETAIL BANKING.HAS MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

4. MOSES AWEDA (SOFTWARE DEVELOPER) A GRADUATE OF MATHEMATICS, EXPERT IN FINTECH PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT. 

5. OYEBAMIJI RACHEAL (CUSTOMER SERVICE PERSONEL), A GRADUATE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE WITH ABOUT 2 YEARS OF BANKING EXPERIENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE.

6. SAMUEL DAMILOLA EMMANUEL. DATA ANALYST

7. KELVIN ATA - UI/UX DESIGN

WE HAVE THESE AND OTHER EXPERTS WHO WORK WITH AFRICAN MONEY IN DIFFERENT CAPACITY

208 INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES

WITH THE HELP OF SOLVE, WE WILL ACQUIRE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO SCALE AND ENTER OTHER MARKETS.

WE WILL BE ABLE TO LEVERAGE THAT RELATIONSHIP GET ACCEPTANCE FROM INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS LIKE MASTER CARD ETC.

WITH THE HELP OF SOLVE WE WILL BE ABLE TO LEVERAGE THEIR GOOD NAME AND BRAND TO GET FURTHER GLOBAL ACCEPTANCE.

OUR SOLUTION MAKES EASE OF DOING BUSINESS POSSIBLE:

1. PAYMENT LINKS

2. MERCHANT PAYMENT INTEGRATION

3. ESCROW SERVICES FEATURES

4. QR CODE  PAYMENT FEATURE

5. WALLETS IN MULTIPLE CURRENCY

6. CURRENCY EXCHANGE

7. VIRTUAL BANK ACCOUNTS

8. VIRTUAL DEBIT CARDS

9. VOUCHERS

10. VOUCHER AGENTS

WITH OUR SOLUTION, IT IS NOW POSSIBLE TO CREATE A BANK ACCOUNT, DO YOUR KYC AND OPERATE IT FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR MOBILE PHONE. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO VISIT THE BANK IN PERSON TO ENJOY BANKING OR FINANCIAL SERVICES.

WE WISH TO BE A VIRTUAL BANK

WE WISH TO MANAGE ASSETS (PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL)

WE WANT TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR INDIVIDUALS, ORGANISATIONS TO CONVERT THEIR ASSETS TO MONETARY VALUES AND VICE VERSA WITHOUT HASSLES.

WE WANT TO BE TRADED ON MAJOR FOREIGN EXCHANGE PLATFORMS AROUND THE WORLD. 

WE GATHER DATA FROM THE FIELD AND ANALYSE THEM. WITH THIS WE MEASURE OUR PROGRESS IN RELATION TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

WE HAVE FEEDBACK FEATURES ON OUR PLATFORM WHERE THE USERS ARE ABLE TO GIVE US FEEDBACK.

INCREASE OR DECREASE IN USERS TRANSACTIONS ON OUR PLATFORM IS A STRONG INDICATOR

VOLUMES OF TRANSACTIONS IS USED ALSO.

FROM THE BACKEND, THE ADMIN IS ABLE TO SEE THROUGH THE GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF NEW USERS JOINING THE PLATFORM, AND EVERY OTHER ACTIVITIES.

THESE AND OTHERS HELP US MEASURE OUR PROGRESS TOWARDS ATTAINING THE UN SDG GOALS.

Our theory of change is predicated on CBN's released data of unbanked and under-banked and its impact on Nigerian economy and monetary policy. It is further predicated on the failure of the traditional banks to rise to the occasion during the implementation of new currency design policy. 

THIS POLICY HAS BEEN PUT ON HOLD UNTIL DECEMBER, 2023 WHEN IT WILL COME INTO FULL IMPLEMENTATION. 

AFRICAN MONEY WILL BUILD ON THIS OPPORTUNITY TO PULL TRAFFIC BY DECEMEMBER, 2023. SINCE TH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS LOOKING TO ADOPT FINTECH PLATFORMS TO IMPLEMENT THEIR POLICY, AFRICAN MONEY IS ABLE TO GRADUALLY COME INTO THE MAIN FRAME AND BECOME THE MAJOR FINTECH PLATFORM IN NIGERIA AND AFRICA BEYOND. 

African Money's website is built with a php laravel framework and the mobile app is built with Flutter technology for both the iOS and Android platforms. 

We keep scaling the software and introduce newer technologies to add new features or provide further securities. 

AFRICAN MONEY HAS A TEAM OF INDIVIDUALS ACROSS MULTIPLE FIELDS OF ENDEAVOUR.

SINCE AFRICAN MONEY IS INTENDED TO RUN GLOBALLY, IT IS CREATED TO ACCOMMODATE WORKERS OF ALL NATIONALITIES AND FOR THAT PURPOSE, THE WEBSITE IS BUILT IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES.

PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CULTURE, COLOUR, RACE, TRIBES AND GENDER WILL WORK WITH AND IN AFRICAN MONEY.

KEY CUSTOMERS: 1. INDIVIDUALS WHO SPEND MONEY ON DAILY TRANSACTIONS

2. SMEs AND MSMEs WHO NEED TO GET PAID FOR TRANSACTIONS. 

3. GOVERNMENT PARASTATALS WHO PROCESS FUNDS.

OUR PRODUCTS/SERVICES: 

1. WE OFFER PAYMENT GATEWAY FEATURES. 

2. WE OFFER QR CODES FOR PAYMENT 

3. OUR USERS CAN CREATE, SELL OR BUY VOUCHERS

4. GIFT CARDS

5. MOBILE AIRTIME RECHARGE

6. CURRENCY EXCHANGE

7. VIRTUAL BANK ACCOUNTS CREATION

8. VIRTUAL DEBIT CARD CREATION

9. APIs FOR INTEGRATION INTO OTHER PLATFORMS

10. MULTI WALLET CREATION

11. FIAT AND CRYPTO CURRENCY FEATURES

PLANS TO BECOME FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE:

1.SERVICE CHARGE ON CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS

2.INVESTMENTS

3. BONDS

4.GRANTS

THE PARENT COMPANY OF AFRICAN MONEY IS DAMISA GURUS LTD. THE COMPANY BEGAN IN 2011 BOOTSTRAPPING AND GOT YOUTH ENTERPRISE WITH INNOVATION IN NIGERIA (YOUWIN!), A WORLD BANK DFID GRANT TO GROW THE BUSINESS. THAT WAS 7.2 MILLION NAIRA IN 2012 AND LATER IN 2019 GOT ANOTHER GRANT GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT (GEM) ANOTHER WORLD BANK/DFID GRANT AND GOT 7.8 MILLION NAIRA. THESE GRANTS HELPED THE COMPANY TO GROW AFRICAN MONEY IS A RESULT OF THAT GROWTH AND EXPANSION.

WITH THE HELP OF MIT SOLVE, AFRICAN MONEY HAS A HUGE POTENTIAL TO GROW AND SUCCEED AND BECOME A GLOBAL BRAND.