Sunday Ehigiator
MiKashBoks, a digital group savings and loan platform has selected the Nigerian market to pilot the digitization of off-line peer, group savings and lending groups, in partnership with RinDev Consulting. This is coming just as it also piloted in Ghana and Sierra Leone.
In a statement signed by a representative of MiKashBoks in Nigeria, Opeyemi Oriniowo, the platform was “developed in response to the largely exclusionary financial systems that have left out millions of Nigerians who lack identifications, credit history and collateral.
“MiKashBoks creates an alternative financial pathway that is built on social capital and individual consent and makes transactions programmable, interoperable and upgradable.
“At MiKashBoks, the mission is to bring billions of existing informal financial transactions online so that everyone owns and benefits from their own financial data.
“We bridge our users with external systems and provide growth and innovation opportunities while maintaining their unalienable rights to consent, self-sovereignty, and privacy and security of their data,” it read
Speaking more on the pilot launch and what to expect of MiKashBoks, the Founder, Salton Massally said it was “launched in 2021 after 24 months of development and study.
“MiKashBoks captures our long histories of working in communities excluded from the financial system; whether it is Black Americans and minorities in the United States or in emerging West African economies where offline financial transactions occur within social networks.
“We enlisted the assistance of RinDev Consulting, a well-known and respected operator in the Nigerian development sector.
“Their expertise in market research, social development and tri-sector partnerships, combined with the innovative technology and strong leadership underpinning MiKashBoks, will strongly position MiKashboks within Nigeria.
“It has been designed with user security at the heart of the app alongside this strong commitment to privacy.
“It also integrated our experiences from designing financial technology for West African markets. The app is fully functional offline. It is available via SMS for users with feature phones, and uses IVR technology for users with low literacy and numeracy.
“Our open API protocol will allow savings and loan group administrators, Local and International NGOs supporting VSLAs, banks and other financial institutions access to monitor customers active on the platform.”
For more information about MiKasboks, and their plans for Nigeria can be found by contacting info@rindevconsultingltd.org
and on www.mikashboks.com.
