One thing that never cease to amaze me is how we can’t take anything for granted in our country.
I mean this is Alhaji Dangote, right? Or 'Africa’s richest man’ as his fans prefer to call him. Legend and role model. Businessman extraordinaire etc. And yet when he decides to throw his considerable weight behind a ‘fintech’ bank, he manages to end up with a ‘site designed by Zero-One’ group of people.
Of course no guarantees in tech, but in any sane country, he will be working with some of the finest talents (at least that money can buy). Unless the ‘tech’ in 'fintech is not that important.
Remember the collective excitement when someone mentioned a Fintech bank was going to be launched on some other thread and this - is what we got.
Which brings the greater question - if Dangote can end up with ‘professionals’ like this, imagine the odds overcome whenever government delivers a successful IT project.
This is why people that know better, even at the risk of appearing to sell out: should never hesitate to work with the government or folks (like Dangote) with influence. If this was well executed (which by the current evidence, looks unlikely), the impact could be considerable on lives of Nigerians.
Traditionally, high worth projects from the government or person-govaments like Alhaji Putin usually gets funnelled from those closest to the deals, naturally there’s no correlation that those closest to Govt are the most competent, infact it turns out - from personal experience - to relate inversely; the further away from the deal the more competent you are likely to be. bite me
Here’s what am thinking; these guys had access to the Alhaji and decided to resuscitate a dud fintech play. And they are picking up where they left off after they had announced the launch.
My conclusion, it’s likely not a Fintech person at the helm of this project. Cuz the only thing Fintech about SunTrust right now is that one banner on the site that says “We are Financial technology Bank”.
There was an interview with the bank’s CEO on CNBC Africa. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between what they have now with every other bank, but I guess time will tell. They might actually be seeking help with regards to mobile/internet banking, so that could be an opportunity for some in the tech community.
He mentions plans to have an agent network. Kinda like what Paga is doing. Maybe they need to collaborate with Paga or other MMOs instead of making their own.
But why launch as a FinTech bank when you don’t have all the chips available, especially the most critical ones that define your basic operations as a “new age, branchless, finacial technology” focused bank… hmmmm
I think this is the product that makes people warm up to the idea. They’ll do a lot of marketing thinking that that’s what they need. In that process, a lot of people will like the idea but hate the execution.
Then will arise a product that will sweep the market away.
It may be paga getting a CBN license, it maybe a payment gateway (Paystack?) pivoting, it maybe a new kid on the block.
It’s not usually the first mover that takes the market. For me, I’m happy they have Dangote’s money to create awareness.