Gho

Gho solves two (2) problems for Africans, first is the high transaction fees, and secondly, provide passive income for users, who can earn from a variety of ways.  

Currently, Gho has integrated into multiple financial services that provide the most competitive rates in Nigeria. This advantage allows us to give our customers cheaper financial transactions compared to any current market offering. The user saves the difference income by paying to the GetPay wallet of the user. For instance, if you purchase airtime worth ₦1000, you earn 2% (₦20 – savings) into your GetPay wallet. This amount is released on the 20th of each month, which encourages a savings culture.

In addition, Gho is a shared revenue model, and users referring to the platform earn a 50% revenue on what is made on the user. In the future, we would add a Peer to Peer lending platform. Since most Africans are living on $1.5 per day, the passive monthly income could be used for rent, school fees payment, and other forms of expenses that will improve everyday life. 

Problem (Nigeria)

80% living under $1.9 per day as a result over 160 million people are seeking alternative income. Due to poverty, it is almost impossible to save part of what is earned [source: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/NGA]

High cost of financial services leading to financial inclusion. Currently, there are over 86 different types of fees charged by Banks [Source: CBN Guide to Bank Charges];

Heterogeneous financial service system making interoperability difficult and increase in cost to the user.  

Solution (Gho)

Gho users:

Generate monthly income and can save by simply transacting and referring users;

Enjoy the cheapest rates possible in the market;

One app integrated to all Banks.

Gho performed extensive research to determine the needs of our customers. The Gho customer is mainly a lower-middle-income class of West Africans. These groups are working but do not earn enough to save for their needs. Currently, we are piloting the solution and using the feedback to improve the service offering of Gho. We also performed some analysis of why products failed to capture the market. See below. 

Based on the target consumer (lower-middle income), the product supports financial saving by performing routine transactions and incentivize users to grow their financial communities. The system is as simple as using your phone for calling as transfers are made using phone numbers. We plan to use USSD in the future as the business progresses.  Currently, we offer cold storage for BTCs as most lower-income customers receive cross-boarder payments on BTCs, and the primary language for transacting is English. Future product enhancement will address multilingual communication to widely used African languages. 

Several competitors have some similarities in our business. The first, Revolut [8 million users] – primarily based in developed countries, and offers a fixed fee for numerous financial services, which are usually cheaper.  Gho is for developing countries that need financial incentives more than developed countries. Secondly, we have a fixed fee offering the lowest financial services -however, we share the revenue to grow the business, unlike Revolut.

Recharge and Get Pay RAGP [over 1 million users] based in Nigeria similar business model, however, has a high registration fee that is shared among its users. Gho does not charge a registration fee but shares revenue. In addition, we have better rates than RAGP. Lastly, Gho is using a banking model of operations that are designed to become a bank for the low-income population. 

Gho is currently in pilot stage and we have positive feedback in market. The information from this stage is currently used to enhance the service. The solution is an enhancement of financial services designed to add value to its users. 

The conventional financial systems charge a service fee and transaction fee to its customers. Apart from the services offered, there is no opportunity for users to partake or earn from Banking activities. Also, most Banks offer services at a premium, which is not helpful to the user considering the lowering cost of technology. Gho is rethinking these processes and its aiding its users by lowering overall cost and providing substantial incentives. 

GetPay Savings

Referral System

Financial and Social Inclusion

Activities

Provide a platform that allows users to save by performing regular transactions and the discount applied to the GetPay wallet

Provide a platform that allows users grow their financial community and earn commissions on activities of the recruited users.

Seek and add new category of users into the financial system

Outputs

Monthly payments to the users of the platform every 20th of the month.

Continuously earning from members of their group

Helping users become financially and socially included

Short Term Outcomes

Regular income from the platform can be applied to expenses such as rent or building project.

Creating financial social network, which is expected to drive P2P lending

Users have a financial history which can be used to seek credit.

Long Term Outcomes

Increasing user community via the revenue share service on GetPay can allow you own a house or pay school fees; thus, improving lives.

Based on the average monthly income from GetPay referrals, we can provide a credit facility with no collateral

The platform and assist in identity management and welfare schemes. Thus help the overall improvement of Africans.

Gho was designed to accommodate a wide variety of social protection and public service delivery initiatives. We can provide loans based on credit trustworthiness (data from our system) for regional governments or help distribute palliatives based on their requirement. However, these are future enhancements, and we are keeping the focus on the initial market requirement. 

The system has considered usability in design by introducing the following:

1. Use of phone numbers instead of account numbers.
2. GetPay code is derived from a combination of first name, last name, and phone number. We are making it easy to memorize and share.
3. We are introducing free app funding using a bank transfer technique, which is uncommon. We had to integrate a standard deposit alert to the application.
4. Always informing the user of past earnings and expected earning to indicate service transparency.
5. Since we are cheaper to use, social protection programs benefit from the low to zero transaction cost.  

Gho is aiming to allow various financial institutions to run our service as a complementary product. Therefore, the application design reflects our future needs. Also, due to the numerous services, we have integrated the gho platform (integrations was based on getting the cheapest services) to many services. We have microservices to interact with various organizations securely.

Gho is available on android, and the iOS version will be deployed within the next two weeks. We considered low connectivity environments in the design of the app, and a USSD version will be available as a future enhancement. The application is easy to use, and anyone who can use a phone can use Gho. 

We are currently at pilot stage (started in May 2020) and we have a total of 252 users. However, we currently performing new integrations based on customer feedback and needs. 

Projected number of users in:

One year: 500,000

5 years: 30 million

Gho has eleven (11) unique services and GetPay is the first of these services. We will introduce and deploy each of these services at specific user-base milestone and time. We anticipate a global impact that will change the financial landscape for millions of people across the globe. 

1. Regulation – we need to get a banking license as we scale higher;
2. Future Competitors – successful products will attach copy cats;
3. Finance and Funding – starting is expensive and a lot of personal funds is used to run the business without additional funds, the growth may be a bit slower. 

1. Regulation – data from our success will be used to get VC backing to get banking license or we partner with Banks to run as a product offering;
2. Future Competitors – we have 10 unique value proposition for the market,and we anticipate that competitors would not be able to keep up with the level of innovation. 
3. Finance and Funding – the risk is growth may be a bit slower but not affected. 

3 full time

7 part time

1. The Project Lead has a Master degree in mobile computing and has been a mobile financial lead in a big bank in Nigeria. 

2. The Project Sponsor is a Technology Lead for a major financial services company with over 15 years experience 

1. Flutterwave - financial switch providing value added services and card services; 

2. Kirusa - providing SMS services

3. Providus Bank - supporting client deposit; 

4. Prime Airtime Africa - providing platform for airtime and bill payments. 

We are aiming to generate income from a vast amount of subscribers

Personal funds

$250,000 estimated

1 . Technology is important and developed countries have better appreciation of technology and how best to develop and deploy; 

2. Workforce Management is important as we intend to run a global business. Using local knowledge will be insufficient in a global market. 

3. Board members and advisors will be critical in the success of the business, while innovation is unique, the ability to scale globally is driven by know how of the Board members who offer direction to the business; 

4. Marketing is also critical to any business and assistance will be welcoming. 

We would like to partner with businesses differently per country. In some countries we would prefer banks and other countries prefer telecommunication companies.