As a solution to the unavailability of foreign currencies to people who require them for genuine and important reasons, a platform, Sabo.ng has been created by CloudWare Technologies, the brains behind the Ebola Prevention App and Nigeriadecide.org.
Sabo.ng is a platform for secure exchange of foreign currencies between users, with CloudWare Escrow service as a facilitator. According to Akinmade Akintoye, the Chief Technology Officer of CloudWare Technologies, the new platform comes as a “panacea to the difficulty in accessing foreign currencies for genuine transactional purposes.”
Speaking at the launch of Sabo.ng in Lagos recently, Akinmade said; “ the exchange process is peer-to-peer, meaning that CloudWare Technologies does not sell foreign currencies, rather users place offers on the platform at the exchange rate they want, for other interested users to indicate their interest and initiate the exchange process. Sabo.ng will serve as a platform for buyer and seller of currencies to meet and facilitate the exchange.”
The distinguishing features of this new platform include the fact that it has the highest security certification of PCI DSS which ensures that all information is safe and unlikely to be hacked by online fraudsters. Sabo.ng also deals with reputation scores built on the trading platform over time.
Akinmade mentioned that suspected malicious accounts are terminated immediately and reputation scores increase with every successful transaction and reduce with incomplete or failed transactions.
“The seller will list the amount he has and the exchange rate he/she wants it to sell for any interested buyer will then bid for that price and exchange will take place. The monies will be paid into Sabo.ng account and the exact amount will be transferred to the account provided by the buyer. In the case where we don’t receive the money from either party, an automatic reversal will be done and the person’s score rate will decrease.”
When asked how long it took to develop the platform, Akinmade said that it took the team two weeks to iron out the concept and to develop the systems needed to power the platform, and a little over a month for secure development of the platform; altogether the project took two months to launch.
However, he said that the platform will be worked on for continuous improvement. Talking about how secure the platform is, Akinmade said;
“Currently, we are looking at partnering with banks to get BVN information to boost security. It will be almost impossible for people to commit fraudulent activities on Sabo.ng when we have their biometric information from the banks. There are also steps being taken to ensure that multiple addresses cannot be created with the same computer system. There is a way we can limit each system to only one account with the computer’s IP address.
“Email and SMS notifications will be sent to both parties at every stage of transaction, the maximum trading amount is $10,000 at once and frequency will be reported to the federal authorities,” he said.
Akinmade concluded by saying that individuals, businesses and organisations are welcome on the platform. He also pointed out that Sabo.ng is capable of providing easy access to foreign currencies for bureau-de-change operators from autonomous and individual sources. Nigerians in Diaspora will also be able to access funds in Nigeria or send money home to friends and family whenever they need to, via a feature on the platform and parents will be able to easily transfer funds to their children studying abroad without any bank charges.
Jumoke Akiyode
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