The world is now leaning towards a full-fledged digital future, more than ever before. With the massive population of Nigeria’s internet-savvy youth, digital transformation is rapidly seizing a golden spot in the Nigerian financial sector. Nigerian CBN-licensed digital bank, Kuda Bank, is leveraging on technology to provide millions of Nigerians with access to full banking services with just a smartphone-based software application. In a nutshell, the bank is situated in your mobile phone.
The bank is believed to be the bank of the future. Considering that its average user is between the age of 18 and 25 years old, it truly is on the course of sealing a golden spot in the future of Nigerian banking. Kuda Bank seems to understand the importance of convenience to its customers, especially the youths who despise stress, and are also the bank’s predominant customers.
Signing Up
Registration with Kuda Bank is an extremely stress-free experience and can be done within 5 minutes. All that needs to be done is to sign up on the mobile app and fill in basic details like name, address, email, a picture, Bank Verification Number (BVN), if the BN is available, phone number, etc, to get a basic account with a maximum balance limit of ₦300,000 and a single deposit limit of ₦50,000. The account can be upgraded to an unlimited account, upon the provision of a government-issued ID.
With convenience at its core, Kuda understands the stress, cost and time associated with getting a debit card in Nigeria. As a result, the bank’s users can easily apply for a debit card, track its progress from the time of application, and still have it delivered at their doorstep, without paying any fee. It is absolutely free of charge. The card also has no maintenance fee, therefore, users do not have to worry about the annoying card-maintenance-deduction custom of traditional banks. The obtained ATM card can be used to withdraw cash, free of charge, at over 3000 Access and Diamond Bank ATMs in Nigeria.
Since it is a digital-only bank, how can I deposit money into my Kuda bank account?
The bank has sealed partnerships with other traditional banks to increase the ease of access to financial services for its customers. Currently, the bank is in partnership with GTBank and Zenith Bank to enable its users fund their Kuda Bank account via over-the-counter deposits. This transaction attracts no fee.
Most people prefer to send money via bank transfers and this attracts an additional cost of as much as ₦50 for transfers involving over ₦50,000 and a minimum of ₦10 for transfers below ₦5,000 with traditional banks. Kuda Bank allows customers to make up to 25 charge-free bank transfers in a month, after which they are charged ₦10 per transfer. Through Kuda’s free transfers, this initiative would save users ₦1,312.5 monthly and ₦15,250 in a year if they made the same 25 bank transfers every month via traditional banks.
The maximum amount that can be transferred at once in a day is ₦250,000 for a basic account, and ₦1,000,000 for an upgraded account. The bank application has a mechanism of understanding the behaviour of users. If a customer usually makes a transfer of ₦80,000, and, suddenly, a transfer a ₦750,000 is made, this transaction will be automatically flagged and prohibited as a security control measure to combat frauds or a potential mistake in entering the transaction amount.
Kuda bank full stack approach and savings feature
According to a medium post by Kuda Bank, “We have built our core systems from the ground up, based on 21st century technology, rather than simply building over existing legacy software. This “full stack” approach means we can process enormous amounts of data in real time and send you actionable information and analytics that help you stay on top of finances. All whilst staying secure and reliable.”
This kind of full stack design approach enables speedy processing of transactions. The bank has also created an easier means for complaint resolution by providing a 30-digit ID for each transaction. This way, issues with transactions can be easily resolved without stress.
The bank also has a savings feature on its mobile application. There are multiple facets of the savings feature. There’s the Spend+Save feature. This allows users to automatically save money as they spend. For every debit transaction, a particular portion of the money in their account is automatically saved and locked away from them.
This makes it easier for users to cultivate the habit of constantly saving money and not spending their entire savings on expenses. Additionally, there is a Flexible and Fixed savings plan. The Fixed plan allows users to lock down a specific amount of money and get up to 15% annual interest on it. The Flexible plan slightly differs from the Fixed plan. This plan allows customers to save money automatically at a specified interval (daily, weekly or monthly) and get up to 10% annual interest.
Kuda Bank is not relenting on churning out innovative developments to the services they offer. Virtually all of their banking services can be accessed with ease. A minor problem with Kuda Bank, however, is the dependence on traditional banks for users to get a Bank Verification Number (BVN). The bank is exploring innovative means of assigning BVN to its customers without them having to open an account with a traditional bank to get this. Hopefully, the bank will subsequently offer a feature that solves this issue. With each innovative stride, Kuda bank is gradually making access to banking services more convenient for each of its customers.
