Naa Sika

Problem:

Digital finance services are designed for mostly high-income people with salaries, to people with some very different financial needs. These formal services remain uncompetitive with many of the informal money management techniques that have been used by the mass market for years. Low-income earners have more volatile incomes and expenditure that need a complex financial management technique.

Solution:

Provide an Electronic Micro Bank Account with No monthly maintenance fee, No monthly service fee, No minimum balance & No deposit required to offer two types of personal accounts; Wallet & Savings Account.

Impact:

We are looking out for the unbanked/underbanked, to serve disadvantaged or low-income individuals who are ignored by mainstream financial companies.

Our aim is to offer services that will integrate tech into finance in order to provide new or improved micro banking services with ease which will aid financial inclusion.

In most African countries, 80% of the population are in the informal sector and about 40% are unbanked. Most digital finance services have designed products relatively for high-income people with salaries, to people with some very different financial needs

In Ghana for example, registered mobile money subscribers increased from 3.8million to 13.1million in 2017, now subscribers are about 20m.

Although Mobile money services have increased, this development has given digital finance access to financial services to hundreds of millions of new customers but only a small products of that population opt for it.

Those in the informal sector need complex financial management systems that are different from the usual and can be accessed with ease. Naa Sika will fill this gap for the rest to be able to achieve financial freedom. 

These figures are relatively similar to other African countries and they all share especially in WURI select countries. 

Since the majority of people in the informal sector such as smallholder farmers, petty traders, artisans, and other entrepreneurs have mobile money wallets, Naa Sika understand their needs and has designed a digitized savings platform traditionally called  “susu” to help grow their business, reducing the lengths of transactions as well as the associated risks and costs and inculcate a savings habit which will help with poverty alleviation.

Naa Sika provides a micro Bank Account with no maintenance fees, no minimum balance & no deposit required. For savings duration of 90 days or more clients get to enjoy no charges but gain interest.

Our platform has been made in such a way that you can save as low as less than a $1 and top-up anytime, any day and anywhere. 

• Unbanked/underbanked, services that seek to serve low-income individuals who are ignored or underserved by traditional banks or mainstream financial companies.

Customers are engaged periodically in their communities through mobile bankers and are assisted with financial tips and advise on a daily basis. 

Most people in the informal sector have no access to financial management systems or any form of savings that they can rely on times of difficulty. Naa Sika Micro Savings solution allows a user to save as little $1 anytime and lock funds that can only be accessed at a maturity date set by the customer or the platform.

This plan like others is specifically designed to instil financial discipline among our customers, thus incorporating behavioural change that incentivizes and helps financial freedom.

The lending product also helps small businesses in the communities to access credits to boost their operations in times of need.

In Ghana "Susu"  and also mostly in West Africa is a form of rotating savings and credit association, a type of informal savings club arrangement between a small group of people who take turns by "throwing hand", as the partners call it, is micro savings has being around within the informal sector for decades and Naa Sika is proud to be the first to digitise susu savings in Ghana. We took an old savings idea and made it better to be mobile and easy to access. 

We have also have new products in testing to be added apart from savings like, lending, investments, funds transfer and payment at point of sale. 

In all we are making available technology that is only for the "privileged" to be accessible to all and also be counted as financially inclusive.

Our main idea is to first deploy Bots into existing chat apps like Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as well as USSD. Telegram (https://core.telegram.org/bots) is already out and we are testing the rest of the platforms. This makes it easier for the customer not to download any new app but can choose any of these platforms to activate his/her account and use it anytime. 

The final stage of platforms deployment will be iOS and Android apps so those who also want them can also have access through them to their account. 

We are also in a testing phase to allow customers to hold, receive, transfer and exchange cryptocurrency and we are starting with three coins; bitcoin, lite coin and doge. 

Savings is critical to households in developing countries. It allows households to improve their standard of living in the face of volatile income. It can also facilitate the investment culture. Even though they know the benefits of saving, yet their attitude of savings is still said to be poor as they attempt to set out of the cycle of object poverty, poor attitude towards savings is attributed to the meager incomes. Low savings might also be a consequence of poor access to safe, flexible, convenient, and affordable savings products.

Ghana has a lower savings culture than most countries in the Sub Sahara. Between 2001 and 2009, the gross national savings as a percentage of the total goods and services produced in the country (GDP) averaged about 13.3 per cent (or $16.3 billion) compared to over 30 per cent for South East Asia economies such as Malaysia. The economy also had high levels of population outside the banking system. 

Over the years it has been noted that the savings in Ghana is not a patronized economic activity. The inefficiency of mobilizing saving is very evident in Ghana as the banking system indicates a low rate of savings as compared to the population in Ghana. The savings culture in Ghana is not much to write home about as most Ghanaian are not into savings. Majority of the Ghanaian population do not have a savings account to more or less save extra income or out of their meager salaries. Majority of the few people with bank accounts are people in the urban areas and are government or corporate employees whose salaries must be paid through the bank.

This negative attitude towards savings needs to change especially in the informal sector so to create financial freedom for the marginalised. 

As already mentioned, susu is a very popular savings scheme among the informal sector and Naa Sika able to digitise it makes it easy for those already savings through any susu scheme to jump on to a more secured and safe platform of Naa Sika. 

Giving people the freedom to save at anytime on mobile makes it easy for customers to access their account and use it to access credit from Naa Sika or any other lending system as they have become financially recognised. small business can now have a record of their business transactions and savings which can be of benefits in the new world of digital finance 

Naa Sika is designed with the low to semi illiterate people in mind so we started with rolling out Chats Bots which simulates a chat with a human being using simple language. We are in the process of researching into inculcating speech into the bots to speak to customers in their chosen Language.

Susu like many other savings solutions in other African countries are similar. Such solutions which are already known makes it easier to push social protection agenda to more of the population. 

Mobile money is mostly used by many especially in the informal sector. Naa Sika platform connects anyone with a Mobile Money wallet to have a micro bank account with us. 

Our system is connected to all the mobile money networks in Ghana (and Africa) through known APIs and this can be replicated or connected to any other mobile money network in Africa.

Although our system is made to be easily used by all, we have also made available Mobile Bankers who are located at various locations of cluster of people. 

These mobile bankers go round the community to help those who have difficulty in using the system and also educate them on the benefits of saving and especially using a digital platform. They also help savers to learn the best practices of keeping records of the business that in the end will help them to access credit when necessary. 

The mobile bankers help solve issues with customers on the field who might not Know how to connect to the customer care personally at HQ.

current number of people: 851

the number serving in one year,: 50,000

 the number serving in five years: 1,000,000

This can be achieved when we get fully regulated with a Medium Fintech Licence from the regulator in Ghana. 

Financial literacy is lacked in most informal sectors and rural folks. We see education as key thing to break the jinx of savings and to make people realise the benefits of the habit of saving. 

Financial inclusion which is the ultimate goal and will impact the livelihood of households, as in Africa lives are based on households and communities they live in. 

If one person benefits from financial literacy he or she takes in home to his community and others can learn from him/her and the cycle of education continues. 

The main barrier to our operation for us to scale up nationwide Ghana is a regulatory requirement of a new Fintech licence that we now asked to acquire before the end of this year 2020. Our current licence restricts us to just operate within our local registered office and we are not allowed to advertise in any form such as social media or traditional media. This has impacted on our growth traction, so if we don't get funds to get the new licence we might not be able to achieve our growth target. 

We need about $200,000 to meet regulatory licence requirement and possibly $800,000 to keep us afloat for about 2 plus years until we begin to make meaningful revenue. 

We are at the moment looking for funding by equity or other means, and we believe if we win this program we can use this price money as a seed to cross this barrier. 

full-time staff: 5

Ralph Menz Ralph Menz is a Multimedia Technologist and an Engineer with a strong flair for Design and Tech. He has been the main brain behind several startups in the broadcast media with over 15yrs in management positions in several businesses.

Chelsy Sey Brands Influencer, an Event Organizer and a Broadcast Journalist, Holds a Bachelor of Technology in Procurement and in Textile Design and has years of experience in Sales and Marketing. She has also managed and consulted for some companies within the food and beverage industry (Hospitality) mostly in the Western Region of Ghana.

NANA KOFI boateng Over 15yrs in the field of Software Engineering in web, desktop, mobile apps and a team leader in many banking projects -private and government led projects and an Ethical Hacker (CEH)

KHALED HOSSAIN Product of Southeast University in Bangladesh, A free-thinking developer, with over 15yrs in the field of Software Engineering in web, desktop, mobile apps 

KWAKU ASANTE With a rich banking expertise in the Consumer, Commercial and Retail Banking space culminating beautifully into a career which spans over a decade, Kwaku Asante has gained a wealth of mastery in the banking industry. Possessing a strong relationship management background, his versatility was brought to bear when he managed the largest consumer portfolio of a top tier local bank for six years resulting in enviable revenues and profitability growth year on year.

Only our partner banks who turns around our money so we can generate interest to give back to our customers. 

Charge commission on 

1. Matured savings less than 90 days: 2%
2. Matured savings more than 90 days generates by our partner bank and not charged to client: 2%
3. Using the Naa Sika at POS: 0.5%
4. Lending fees
5. Investment fees

The business will be sustained by itself as we intend to make money with our business model most especially as fees generated from all products will be enough to sustain it when we scale out Ghana or Africa wide to get more customers. 

At the moment the project is being bootstrapped by the Founder.

how much funding we seek: $1m

type of funding: grant, debt, or equity

by when  to raise the money: November 2020

What are your estimated expenses for 2020: $35,000

We are applying for this Mission Billion Challenge as we need funds seriously to scale up, as the product is ready but we don't have enough funds to scale. 

When we win this price money it will be an addition to make a bold move to affect more people with our product. 

We also believe it will open us up to other funding agencies to get to known us so to support us through Equity or grant finance to achieve our ultimate goal.