AppZone is on the mission to provide technology that empowers people with unlimited access to quality financial services, writes BEN UZOR
Nigeria and much of the rest of Africa really do have the potential to be spectacular economic success stories. This, however, explains why the continent is gaining increasing global economic importance.
Moreover, Africa makes up 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land. About 40 percent of African countries have discovered oil. As at 2014, seven out of 10 world’s fastest growing economies were in Africa. Between 2000 and 2010, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa grew by 500 percent to $55bn.
In view of all of these, industry experts are of the view that unlocking Africa’s potential for growth and prosperity requires an efficient financial system. According to them, an efficient financial system helps pool together idle funds together which can now be allocated to areas of production and economic activity. In Nigeria, there are limitations in the financial system as banking products are not readily available and do not address customer needs.
Some of the fall-outs of the limitations in the financial system is a high ratio of the unbanked and under-banked as well as little or no funding for Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
There is also an enormous number of struggling microfinance banks. It is not all rosy with the big commercial banks as many of them are under-performing. One firm looking to address some of these limitations using bespoke technological solutions is AppZone, Nigeria’s leading provider of home grown banking and payment software solutions.
The technology company is the creator of the continent’s leading banking and payment cloud solution for Microfinance banks (MFB) – BankOne. It is a banking solution designed to empower MFBs to deliver services to micro and informal enterprises. The cloud-based solution provides end-to-end automation of typical operation in retail financial institutions including MFBs, savings and loans institutions, cooperatives and mortgage banks.
AppZone’s commercial bank customers, which include Skye Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Wema Bank, First Bank and Access Bank, have funded the company’s product development efforts, to the point where it has a portfolio of offering including a card management system, an in-branch collection platform and mobile banking platform. In 2009, AppZone therefore started looking at how its technology could be applied to the unbanked in the country, and to the microfinance sector.
The firm discovered that MFBs did not have the funding to license software, and many of them didn’t have robust core banking applications for that reason. AppZone decided to develop a core banking IT solution, BankOne, in addition to bringing together the payment products used by the commercial banks in a central service. About 180 MFBs are currently running on the BankOne platform.
“We are using technology to overcome some of the limitations in the financial system,” Obi Emetarom, chief executive officer, AppZone Limited. According to him, “we are automating manual operations and processes. We are also enabling unlimited service delivery via e-channels.”
The company has eyes fixed on expanding the scope and competitiveness of financial institutions by delivering disruptive innovation on agile technology using global best practice. AppZone is indeed positioned to make good on its promise.
The company’s core investor and institutional shareholder is Business Connexion Group, South Africa’s leading IT services Group by marketshare. BCX boasts of more than 7000 strong workforce in nine countries, with an annual revenue exceeding $700m. AppZone’s continuous investment in Research $ Development (R&D) has led to an expansion of its product portfolio.
Some of the new solutions include: Trade Port, Credit Club, Telcios, Via Card, amongst others. Trade Port is a solution that integrates banking/financial services with day-to-day operations of micro, small and medium retailers. It includes sales, inventory and accounting automation as well as e-banking and payment processing.
Credit Club, on the other hand, provides technology and physical outlets for extending human assisted financial services to remote and excluded customers. The solution provides services such as Core Account Opening, Cash transactions and lending as well as card issuance, remittances and payments. Telcios is a banking and payments solution for medium and large corporates.
The solution enables businesses to make and receive payments as well as effectively automate financial operations. Lastly, Via Card is a banking solution designed to improve the convenience and service usage of existing customers in the formal sector. It is a solution for managing cards and personalised banking touch points.
