Softcom, an indigenous software technology company focused on using innovation to solve some of Africa’s biggest challenges has come up with a solution for last mile financial inclusion with the launch of its latest innovation – ‘Eyowo’; a bank on mobile phone, which is said to revolutionise how people send, spend, save, receive and borrow money.
According to Tomi Amao, CEO, Eyowo, “this solution was created in an attempt to solve the financial inclusion problem in Nigeria today. The aim for Eyowo is to provide simple, modern and reliable financial services to anyone with a phone number. This includes consumers, retailers, businesses, and developers.”
Describing it as the bank for all, Amao said at the press launch in Lagos that; “Our target market is everyone who has a payment need and has a phone number. This includes people and businesses who want to make or receive payments for goods and services online and offline.”
With Eyowo, Nigeria’s 173 million mobile network subscribers can send and receive money, buy airtime, pay bills, make cardless ATM withdrawals, request and accept payment from customers using only their phone numbers.
The company says that individuals can also save and earn interest, borrow money at zero interest and have access to dollar cards to carry out international transactions.
“We’ve engineered products that are truly accessible to everyone regardless of the social status they belong to. Eyowo is available on Android, iOS, USSD, Voice, SMS and on the web”, said Ope Adeyemi, product and partnership lead at Eyowo.
The company also highlighted Eyowo retail, a service which uses just one tool to manage orders, payments, inventory, customers, settlements and reports, thus helping retailers organise their business more efficiently for optimal growth. Businesses can also now accept more forms of payment – cash, card, bank transfers, and Eyowo. “This will significantly expand the customer base and horizon for internet-enabled businesses who today can only receive payments from bank account holders.”, Adeyemi said.
On how it works, Amao explained that retail payment has been re-invented through this tool, as the system allows retailers accept cash, transfer, card and eyowo wallet payments seamlessly with or without mobile internet subscription. Pair to pair payment has also been simplified as Eyowo has rethought corporate internet banking systems.
According to him, the flexibility of the platform has made it possible to build on top of the application program interface (API) solution as it has created a developer platform that enables developers to build payment products, tools, and experiences that people love by exploring Eyowo Developer API documentation, SDKs and other resources. These API integrations will help platforms in receiving payments and making payments to anyone who has a phone number. The system also allows for customers with trusted profile and spending habits to borrow money with zero interest.
Interestingly, the Eyowo platform can now be connected to 1,500 different applications around the world.
To deliver on its promise, Eyowo has partnered with leading financial service institutions including Providus Bank, GTBank, Interswitch, NIBSS, Bank of Industry, Verve, amongst others. “We will continue to join forces with organisations whose ethos are aligned with our vision for financial services in Africa,” Amao said.
