I know of at least 2 App-only banks that will most likely launch before the year runs out. Features like cheque capturing might not be available yet due to regulatory issues in Nigeria plus they will need at least one branch/business office to fulfill CBN’s requirements.
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How many of them use Apps? they prefer physical 1 on 1 hence they troop into the banks, the company can partner n get them going to their favorite retail store or church or get Agents who move round to get money n process and record transactions, same way Paga et al are doing.
Interesting, ive had the idea to replicate Simple and others here in Nigeria and someones about to launch, Great, its about time the Sector gets disrupted.
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I opened an app-only account with Monese over the weekend (for now UK only). I think it’s a matter time before they start springing up here in Naija - just like the payment gateway did.
I don’t see any foreigners opening a bank app any time soon. Regulation is a significant impediment and despite the shitty service, it is foolhardy to underestimate the power of banks in the mind of the consumer’s consciousness. Whilst Union Bank was in distress, only 10% of depositors took their money out of Union Homes, their so-called mortgage subsidiary leaving N33bn. The deposits in Union Bank itself were more or less unscathed. The marketing costs to get customers to switch from a GTB, Zenith (pick anyone you want) will be punitive. My 2kobo
If this service will be launched, it won’t be launched by foreigners.
You will be shocked that those willing to launch this are also willing to bite the bullet on marketing.
How much will they spend?
And what features will these new banking apps have that will compel people to switch.
I would say as much as is necessary
Something revolving around a customer-validated value proposition. Not all customers of the banks you mentioned have ALL their needs met. If that was the case, innovative offerings like Piggybank, Paylater, and the likes would not be having any success.
I have used Paylater and Piggybank (and even referred a few friends to both) and I can be considered by a casual non-discerning observer as a “sophisticated” customer who has “sophisticated” banking needs that can surely only be met by one “big bank” or another. And yet I find both products particularly helpful at various times. So don’t worry about what products they will offer. As long as they don’t blindly implement fancy un-validated ideas, they will do well.
More people to be hired too. Just with a different set of skills. This is going to be a major opportunity for talented developers most especially.
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Random: Sometimes, a little googling will help you realize Ngozi Dozie is a director in the firm behind one of the products you’re propping up against his point. Now, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I think most of your rebuttal is hinged on faith rather than reality.
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Not everyone is a talented developer… & not everyone wants to be a programmer.
CNN Money Reports : Technology could kill 5 million jobs by 2020.
Imagine that! @xolubi
I actually mentioned them because of this
Funny how hyper-connected the world is 
@ngozidozie
@BigfootDreams I didnt say those shops would be populated by only developers. Look an app-only (or purely digital) bank requires a different talent pool, a different cost structure, a different way of developing products, a different everything. Its a lot. Forget about what some report is saying. Even in the best and most stable economies, people will be fired, people would be hired to replace them and others would get promoted, year after year. Its an unchanging fact of organizational life (large corporate or startup) and its not going away antytime soon.
In my opinion, I don’t see a mobile app bank evolving slowly from one startup to another. Like a caterpillar to a butterfly. So genuinely don’t think those examples are relevant, unless to show that services can be decoupled.
But instead agree with you that ‘everything’ needs to be thought about differently. Hence why it’s needs an holistic approach to even build the right app, hire the right skills etc.
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We are on the same page.
I only made references to those services to emphasize that there are un-met and/or under-met financial needs still out there, around which, “banking” (for lack of a less rigid word) value propositions can be built AND tested and ultimately launched.
Now the app may not be solving all identified genuine problems but that’s where partnerships and collaboration can come in. As you’ve alluded to in one of your writings, the business model required to succeed here cannot be solitary (as most banks are used to). Collaboration is key.
Agreed! I also feel thinking that a mobile bank app needs ‘features’ (like @ngozidozie alluded to) is an incorrect mindset to approach it. I think it should instead go back to first principles of understanding what the customer wants or lacks with current providers.
For instance, people detest going to banking halls - rude staff, wasted time etc. On the other hand, a mobile bank app startup doesn’t want banking halls - reduced fixed costs, low running costs etc. Match made in heaven, right. But how does the startup offer excellent customer service? I mean one can easily say - ‘we will build it into the app’.
A relevant experience of how this can play out is when I used Azimo to transfer money (you can say similar to the many examples of startups encroaching on typical bank territory), last month. They took 2 days to just confirm my identity (could have taken 2 mins if they had an office) and 5 days to actually do the transfer (averagely should take between 2 to 6 hrs). As can be expected, I wasn’t a happy bunny and I told them as much.
If you bring this specific example to a mobile only bank app, you can see all sorts of ways they need to execute correctly. So it’s not by ‘features’. BTW, anyone can look up Azimo, they’ve raised tons of cash, which shows these are hard problems that takes time to tackle.
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Only just heard of Azimo and didn’t know they were active in Nigeria. Do they have any reps here? Have had easier success sending money via bitcoin using BitPesa. Which direction were you trying to use? £ from Nigeria to UK?
I doubt that they have physical reps in Nigeria but appears that they’re are getting Nigerians. On first login to the app, Nigeria is a default (with Poland) to check rates. I haven’t tried BitPesa, do you find it reliable? I was sending £ from UK to Nigeria.
Yer this is highly possible n in fact already exits, and a perfect use case(although not complete yet) is GTB’s USSD banking solution Let’s take a look at it, what do most ppl go to d banking Hall to do:
- open an account,
- check acc balance,
- pay money into their acc,
- send money to others,
- withdraw money,
- pay for utility bills
- borrow money*
This is what constitutes majority of tasks that banks are frequented for and all of these(except maybe depositing money into ur account) can be done from your mobile phone for banks that offer mobile banking USSD and app services like GTB, diamond and Wema.
The only things these banks need to do now is to push more awareness for their m-banking solutions and also look for ways to make them more secure n less prone to fraud.
Hence in the nearest future,if these services gain massive adoptance, d only thing that would require physical interactions with d bank are services that are corporate in nature, e.g opening a biz account, transferring large sums of money, etc.
As a side note, d next avenue these banks needs to start exploring in how to make these processes dynamic and automatic using bots, AI and natural language processing. So for instance I should be able to also do all these from let’s say a GTB customer care Facebook messenger bot and this will save them a lot as it offers an addtional advantage to USSD such as uploading of documents(e.g utility bill and picture, when opening an account wc is not currently possible via USSD),.
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Bitpesa - very reliable. Great customer service
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