I need to send money to someone and can’t get to the bank to make a deposit (or use my bank’s app, for one reason or the other).
But I got airtime (which is money, only that it’s in the air…lol).
What if there’s an app that could allow me deposit the airtime into that someone’s bank account right from my phone and they withdraw it as cash? Would this be cool??
Share your 2 kobo!!!
I would say a platform, not just an app, is needed.
Exactly!!!
this is one of my Plans bro, i have been preparing for this projects since, and the company i found to help along are charging #200 and i too will have to be charging #100 along making #300 
but some users wont like it, even i have set up everything, but i still Need a C.A.C certificate.
But good luck when you find out about these things down the road. Some ideas are very obvious, but then if it is so obvious, why is no one doing it?
Could contact www.beeptool.com?
presently if you buy their Voip airtime you can transfer the value as cash to any bank account in Nigeria or some mobile money wallet and also even use it to pay bills, But to the best of my knowledge you need to buy their airtime or another operator airtime from there website.
check if they can provide you with some more details
Thanks
It can be done as a favour but not as a business.
The Telcos have blocked every possible business angle.
Transferring of airtime has daily limits around N5,000 worth. Airtel or charges you to do it.
Transferred airtime is also not same as VTU; the receiver gets none of the bonuses.
Except you find another angle to this, it cannot run as a successful business.
In some sense legal tender backed by airtime would seem more ‘valuable’ than the usual fiat. My paper money as call minutes is still worth call value even in the extreme event inflation completely erodes the currency as it did with the Zimbabwean dollar which has been largely replaced by the US dollar.
I think somewhat of a cultural shift necessitated by the riots in Kenya 2007, created the money habit that fueled M-Pesa, people had money but couldn’t get call credits, checking up on relatives across town was a daily need, a constant one for almost everyone.
So people in town who had access to call credit would send to relatives in affected areas and hope for them to get excellent value at exchange. This cashless habit stuck. And its no coincidence that Vodafone launched M-Pesa the same year, which is an upgrade of the same call credit play that persisted so Instead of just buying call credit, you fund your mobile wallet with M-Pesa value (Mind they don’t make money at this exchange, unlike for call minutes, your deposit or purchase is valued at 100%. From service charge and transfer fees the service they make their money.) which could be done by the same Call vendors and can be used as minutes’ top up, debt payment, purchase…basically money stored with the telcos on a different service.
Hence @KelvMakanjuOla airtime as money isn’t the most effective approach but the telcos as the guarantor of value and their network for distribution is a proven approach. That is vaguely what GT bank achieved with the 737 runaway success, but even that is capped by how many people managing a GT bank account.
Anyone that can effectively convert airtime into cash or better still physical cash into an electronic format without any loss of value - could potentially have solved a major problem. Aside from money transfer to firends and family etc. there is also the other aspect of micro-savings which could benefit. However N500 in cash is not the same as N500 worth of air-time!
I wouldn’t want such an app to become a thing. It can start with this feature but something in it just reeks of something wrong with a market (like when they used this detergent)
Take a look: http://ventureburn.com/2015/03/meet-kenyan-startup-moving-airtime-carriers-exchanging-airtime-cash/
Etisalat is exploring this…their operations will be more like Western Union. Some of the issues are who will regulate as you’ve already pointed out. You can’t serve 2 masters. A friend working there told me this some months ago.