• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

CashBox aims to double customer base organically by year-end

cashbox

CashBox, a Nigerian-based digital savings platform, aims to double the number of customers saving on its platform by  the end of the year  by leveraging more on technology and constantly delivering customer-centric services.

Read MoreWith N70 million saved, Cashbox says it’s ready for bigger pie

The firm hopes to increase its user base to 20,000 from its current 10000.

“We are investing hugely in secured technology in ensuring that our customers get improved quality services which would help us achieve growth and double the registered users before the year runs out,” Sydney Aigbogun, CEO, for the firm said in an interview with BusinessDay in the firm’s office in Lagos.

CashBox is a secured online platform, designed to inculcate and promote the habit of savings in users while earning interest. The tech start-up rewards as much as 15 percent annually while allowing users save as low as N100.

Aigbogun explained that the reason for the establishment of the tech start-up firm is to encourage the habit of savings in an economy that has been challenged by falling disposable income and low purchasing power, so as to enable them cushion effect of shocks from arising unforeseen circumstances.

There are three plans for users who wish to save on Cashbox; the first is the regular saver designed mainly for salary earners. The Regular Saver allows users save any amount as low as N100 regularly on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on the one convenient for the user.

Users on this plan earn between 7 to 10 percent interest annually and are at liberty to suspend their savings at any time. They are also entitled to make four withdrawals at no cost, on the first day of the last month of every quarter, which is March, June, September and December.

However, any withdrawal done outside these days attracts a 5 percent charge on the account.

According to the online savings tech boss, the reason for the 5 percent deduction outside the free withdrawal days was to discourage users from seeing the platform as a traditional back by curtailing all forms of unnecessary withdrawals.

The second plan is the Locked Savings which works like a normal fixed deposit account of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs). Nonetheless, users get their interest upfront and minimum tenor for the plan is 90 days.

The plan also allows users lock a fixed sum of money for any time frame above 90 days, get their interest upfront and locked funds at maturity. Users of the plan can earn as high as 15 percent interest per annum depending on the length of time and are open to the option of rolling-over or withdraw their savings at maturity.

The last being the Instant Savings, which gives users the opportunity to add more funds to their saving plan or, save any amount instantly, while still running their regular saver account.

CashBox was officially launched this year after being licenced under the corporative Licence Act, Aigbogun said.

Card payments under the platform are secured using Paystack and Flutterwave.

 “Funds saved under our platforms are safe and securely held with our partner bank which is the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) insured,” he said. “Our site was also built using Bank Grade security features, with user’s card and bank details secured using Paystack and Flutterwave, which operates one of the best payment technologies in the world and being used by top companies like Uber, Booking.com and many more.”

Aigbogun explained that users fund is kept in the bank and are invested in in risk free asset.

Unlike other savings online platforms, CashBox was one of the early introducers of the use of bank transfers for customers who don’t want to use a debit card. It also introduced a situation where users can transfer between plans.

Aside residents in the country, Nigerians in Diaspora can also save on the platform as long as they have a Master or Visa card.