by Samson Akintaro
The Managing Director, Hollaport Technologies Limited, Mr Kabiru Rabiu, has urged Nigerians to embrace the use of mobile money to deepen financial inclusion in the country. He made this call in Lagos during the launch of a new payment-in-messaging platform that brings a mix of social media excitement with financial technology. The two-in-one app, which gives its users the ability to boost their social interaction through chatting, receiving and sending of money and other numerous services was launched in Lagos. Rabiu said the country must leverage her huge mobile penetration to bring millions of unbanked Nigerians into the system.
Mr Rabiu, said that the App was solely an indigenous platform designed to meet the needs and yearnings of Nigerians, especially the unbanked in rural communities across the country.
He pointed out that there were a lot of unbanked areas in Nigeria, adding that the platform would create the opportunity for Nigerians in remote communities to partake in the various banking transactions. He noted that the journey of the App started two years ago and was borne out of the need to ease the financial transaction and increase financial inclusion as well as transfer money and make payments not only in Nigeria but throughout the African continent.
According to him, Hollaport is a Nigerian payment-in-messaging platform designed to provide both social and financial solutions to its numerous users through technological aids. “We are happy to launch Hollaport App today,” he said. “The application has two major features at the moment. It has chat and payment features but we are going to include additional features in the nearest future. We have airtime top-ups, cable, electricity, and data subscription and pay code – a technology that enables users to withdraw cash from ATM without the need to have a card or bank account.
“Our focus is to boost financial inclusion of the unbanked and to also increase the possibilities and convenience of chatting, sending and receiving money without leaving the chat platform,” Rabiu explained. He, however, lamented that financial inclusion has been a major issue in Nigeria with over half of the adult population being unbanked, pointing out that only a fraction of the banked is using technology in their processes.
While demonstrating the functionality of Hollaport App, the General Manager, Hollaport, Micheal Olowojesiku, emphasised that the whole idea about Hollaport was to give its users the liberty to do many transactions within the platform at the same time.
He added that Hollaport runs on a well-optimized platform that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate with a seamless flow of operations.
He noted that Hollaport Technologies aims to reduce the learning curve associated with mobile applications by developing a lifestyle tool that can fit in all areas of life while maintaining ease-of-use.
“The question has never been one of when, but of how and this is the gap we intend to fill in the Nigerian market,” he said. “As you know that over 85% of Nigerian adults own a mobile device, 103 million have active Internet subscriptions, and a large percentage of this data size have a presence on social media. Hollaport aggregates instant messaging features with financial technology to ensure the app is as relevant as it is functional.”
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/2019/07/financial-inclusion-expert-advocates-mobile-money-adoption/
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