Digital Solution Firm Drums Support For Financial Inclusion Across Africa
Building on its long-term vision to facilitate financial freedom for all within Nigeria and across Africa, Cashir, a leading fintech company and provider of commercial services to the business community, recently came up with a financial app, the first of several innovations, to drive greater efficiency, more business value amid positive outcomes for users.
The digital solution, known as Cashir App, which targets the provision of seamless financial transactions, seeks to address the challenges that plague the society, such as inaccessibility to financial access points, time-consuming long queues at ATMs, and the attendant out-of-service issues, among others.
During the inception of the present administration in power for instance, an acute shortage of naira, driven by overnight fuel price hike, naira devaluation and new currency introduction policy, triggered long queues across the face of the nation as citizens, seeking cash flow, resorted to buying naira at exorbitant cost from roadside vendors or wherever they could find it due to failure of the banks to provide the service.
Banks as primary providers of financial services are mandated to do so by law, but sometimes meet with failure when it comes to reaching the hinterlands with their services.
According to a recent statistic by EFInA, a renowned evaluator for financial sector development in Nigeria, no less than 55 per cent of Nigerian adults are among the unbanked and underbanked in the country. This inability of banks to bridge the financial accessibilty gap, especially in the hinterlands where they have little or no operations, is a fundamental barrier to delivering timely and fulfilling customer experiences.
Cashir, through the new offering automates the process, enabling people to access cash anywhere at anytime,
connecting to a location-based network of cash agents nearest to the person. Wole Ademola Adewole, Cashir App CEO, noted the platform is a unique one, of which we are the first fintech taking on this challenge within the African landscape.”
According to the tech expert, the future is digital and cashless, hence the reason the organisation was actively
developing digital products to facilitate the daily financial transactions of its user base.
“All you need to access Cashir App is to own a smartphone, download the app, and you can make seamless financial transactions from your smartphone after downloading the app, and you can initiate transfer to any bank account in Nigeria, receive funds, pay bills, purchase airtime and internet data, and more; all at lightning speed.”
Corroborating, Adedayo Adewole, the Chief Product Officer of Cashir, noted that already a lot of young adults had adopted its digital offering, citing “many young people of between ages 18 and 35 that are in school, women and market sellers etc are our early adopters; You know they are more adventurous and love to try out new things.”
Only last year, as a testament to the commitment, versatility and innovativeness of Cashir, the organisation was among few Nigerian startups picked for the Unleash Plus 2023 cohort. The initiative is a six-month programme to assist young startups by rendering support so their ideas and products, which could have been utilised for the benefit of mankind, don’t die prematurely.
The effect of the programme on the fintech company is far reaching. The exposure has been incalculable, even as the startup is now actively developing digital products to support the lifestyle of its user base as well as facilitate their daily financial transactions.
Mindful of this, the young startup is hopeful that its customer base would soon hit and exceed half a million subscribers within the next two years.
Cashir is a digital payment solutions provider that was established in 2022. An independent provider of global services, Cashir aims to grow its user base and transaction volume to hit 1 billion valuation to achieve unicorn status.
But its immediate goal is the facilitation of 1 million Africans in remote areas to become financially banked.
