There are over 10 money transfer services linking the diaspora to populations in Africa, enabling them to send money instantly and so far, they are serving the masses well.
However, a new Kenyan startup Nip Capital says there are still gaps to fill.
According to CEO Alex Mativo, “We plan to make sending money across borders as easy as Texting.”
Mativo says Nip Capital believes that sending money should not be limited by physical borders and so the firm is plugged into mobile networks and banking platforms to make the process of moving money to your friends, relatives and businesses across Africa, cheap and instant.
Nip Capital team says the startup was founded out of the frustration that millions of SMEs and people in Africa are facing steep fees while intending to send or collect payments across Africa due to high charges imposed by banks or by services such as MoneyGram and western union. This has resulted in Africans losing an estimated 1.8 billion dollars in money transfer costs every year.
“When was the last time you tried to send money to a relative or friend living in a different part of Africa? Or as a business when was the last time you tried to collect payment after selling your products or services across borders?,” asks Mativo. ”More often than not you face high costs or slow and inefficient services when doing these transactions. This is a shared problem among millions of Africans and it is very frustrating.”
Nip Capital says its transfers are instant therefore users incur minimal forex exchange fees, adds that the system is easy to use and users can send and collect payments with any mobile money and banking platform that Nip Capital are plugged into. The team adds that the startup also operates in a number of the world’s national and digital currencies and charges only a 3% flat rate on every transaction with no hidden costs.
While newer startups and banks concentrate on disrupting the banking industry by developing digital banking apps for smartphones, Nip Capital says it realized that a massive percentage of Africa is underbanked and still using feature phones. It’s therefore launching transfer services which are plugged into mobile money and banking platforms across Africa to offer low cost and instant cross border transfer services to its users.
“We want to offer Africans transparency in remittance fees, lower cost money transfer service, simplify paper-heavy, expensive and logistically complicated financial systems, open up trade borders and increase financial security in Africa,” Co-founder Nini Rose.
Nip capital is currently based in Mauritius and Kenya and has plans to roll out its services into Eastern and Southern Africa by Mid 2017.
