LaLITATech

Financial Institutions and the Fintech Investments in Nigeria did not only failed in bridging the gap of Financial Inclusion, but to some extents cannot serve the needs of their clients. A report by the EFinA showed that Nigeria did not only miss its overall financial inclusion target, it was unable to also achieve other sub-targets outlined by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Among the major problems of Financial Environment in Nigeria are

ACCESSIBILITY: 

According to the World Bank, access to a transaction account is the first step toward broader financial inclusion “since it allows people to store, send and receive money.” Northern geopolitical zones, Women, Youth, Rural areas, and MSMEs remain the focus of interventions as about 40 million of the country’s 106 million adults remain completely financially excluded. Although Nigeria has a higher proportion of banked adults than many comparator countries, it also has a high proportion of financially excluded adults at about 38%. And, of the estimated 40 million financially excluded adults, 43% live in the North West of the country.

AFFORDABILITY:

MSMEs and Individuals are seriously concerned about the cost of running a Bank account. Too many charges for many more unidentified services and the cost of obtaining PoS device, have negatively affected the performance of some MSMEs and Individuals leaving their Bank accounts dormant and inactive. BusinessDay analysis of the NIBSS data revealed that the dormant bank accounts reported in 2021 amounted to 57.9 million compared to the 52.2 million the previous year. While this is seen to appreciate year after year, the number of Bank accounts eligible for a particular type of funding is dramatically reducing.

TECHNICALITIES:

A major challenge in the financial inclusion process in Nigeria is how to ensure that the poor rural dwellers are carried along considering the lack of financial sophistication among this segment of the Nigerian society due to the general low level of financial literacy. Majority of the estimated 40 million financially excluded Nigerians lack knowledge of the services and benefits derivable from accessing financial services, while staff of the service providers often display lack of adequate understanding of the services and so unable to educate effectively. In fact the sub-optimal outcome from attempts to increase customer awareness is reflected in the lack of appreciable progress in the literacy level of the populace. This has remained a major impediment to the progress of the financial inclusion as a result process 

Anecdotal evidence has shown that only 46% of the world's adults have access to financial services. Improving the global average level of financial inclusion has, therefore, become a global challenge. 

Connecting every individual to basic financial products and services has an underpinned Financial Inclusion efforts. This could be achieved when adult Nigerians have access to affordable financial products and services that meet their needs.

LaLITATech's main objective is to build and deliver trust in the modern financial transactions through innovative digital financial services that allow, even the unskilled/special needs, clients to perform transactions such as cash deposits, cash withdrawals, money transfer, payment of bills, and access to non-interest loans, all with Utter simplicity. 

We have developed  a platform of payment systems around an electronic device that is affordable; 70%-80% cheaper than the conventional devices in the market, Easy-to-use; even among people with special needs/unskilled persons, and durable; strong plastic material and a large inbuilt battery. This electronic device summarizes sophisticated financial transactions in to two simple commands, Yes and No.

QR-codes generation and the NFC technologies are the unique features of this device that delivers trust among clients in the following ways:

Accuracy in Data Input.

1. All account details are encoded in an Image, as such, It doesn't require entering data manually.
2. Captures data of a credit card by swing-over, it doesn't require contact with a credit card.

Easy-To-Use.

1. It has only three buttons, the power button and two functional keys, Yes (to accept transaction) and No (to decline a transaction.)
2. Support voice broadcast for transaction information, giving clients (skilled, unskilled or blind) an interactive transaction with the device.
3. No need of a smart phone, it has a screen display of 240*320 dots matrix TFT LCD, output shows dynamic QR code, NFC and transaction prompts, etc.

Portability.

It is small in sized and weight, and can be carried on hand or taken along right inside your pocket. It's 65.6mm X 88mm X 18.6mm in size, and light in weight; 80g,

Faster Transaction.

High performance 32/64-bit security CPU,OS. Seamlessly without hanging issues that you may encounter with other devices. High performance and efficiency. More number of calculations per second can be performed to enhance faster transactions.

Durability.

Strong plastic material with a built-in Rechargeable lithium battery: 3.7V, 800mAh, that can last for several days.

Other Technologies.

mApp: A mobile application to open new account, manage transactions and access the KCC-Funders program/non-interest loans.

KCC-Funders: These is a program initiated under LaLILATATech that is focused in bridging the gap between the African innovative startups or idear, industry disuptors and VCs/funders. It is a crowdsoursing platform  that has partnership with top African billionaire, philanthropist, government agencies, industries, organisations, and entrepreneurs. LaLITATech is the main facilitator for the program.

The Mobile Retail Business is very common in Nigeria, they're mobile in nature. They includes vendors at corporate events, food trucks, and mobile service provider, e.g tricycle drivers.

Essentially, this retailer class also perform all transactions that occur on stalled traffic and on congested street corners. They are not well regulated, traditional mobile retail businesses do not often pay taxes, and may deface the environment where city plans do not support their existence.

However, they make up a remarkable part of the retail industry. It is estimated that transactions worth more than N540 billion are carried out by these retailers annually. Prices are often negotiable in this class of retailers. Because they are everywhere, i.e transportation, grocery, e.t.c, more than 80% of Nigerians cannot imagine living for a day without patronizing them. They offer personal retail experience.

Other than this, they hardly offer the alluring shopping/service experience which more sophisticated businesses offer. They are usually unbanked and perform small and frequent transactions. Clients for these class of retailers are usually uncomfortable because they are always looking for cash. And the 1.6 million PoS deployed to increase circulation of cash can't seem to do any of that.

Because the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) is strictly imposing the cashless policy and constantly making efforts to reduce total cash in circulation. February 10th, 2023, CBN announced it to be the deadline for collecting old Nira(₦) notes and sets the OTC withdrawal limit to be ₦2,000.00-₦10,000.00 for some Banks. Creating cash scarcity crisis across the country. Average Nigerian household will need ₦4,000.00-₦20,000.00 daily to survive, and he/she would always think "If the mobile retail businesses would accept transfer, it would have saved me money and time." Most Nigerians are forced to patronise sophisticated businesses, because they accept transfer, though they're running out of budget. The Mobile Retail Businesses are seen collapsing on regular basis due to constant decrease in revenue.

My customer is the Mobile Retail Business Owner, because he/she has to move to various locations to meet their clients to perform quick and small transactions, he/she usually feels financially excluded because they are either illiterate, cannot afford a POS, and/or skeptics of cashless transactions. In this era of cashless policies, these businesses would have perform more  transactions if there was a platform they can trust, use easily, and faster to save time on the go. My customer often thinks "If only I had something that can bridge these barriers to financial inclusion, it could have increased my revenue."

LaLITATech's mission is to improve financial inclusion among local communities in Nigeria by building and delivering trust in the modern financial transactions among the Mobile Retail Businesses. We hope to see a trusted society where everyone is cashless on the go, which will help in;

1. Removing the stress and cost of obtaining cash,
2. Saving time and improving productivity,
3. Increasing Retailer's revenue,
4. Retailers access to funding/finances,
5. Regulating Retail businesses,
6. Increasing Government revenue(tax collections), and
7. Improving security and Standard of living.

AS TECHNOLOGIST

We have access to excellent technical and professional networks. Our peers are available to augment our core abilities.

AS LEADERS

We see where people are "stuck" in their lives and show up in a meaningful way.  We understand the value of being "present" and listening to others. We're member of some unions and served at serious capacities to represent our communities.

AS ENTREPRENEURS
Before the introduction of LaLITATech, Many people wouldn't believe financial transactions would be made such easy. Initially we started as Agency Bankers helping customers perform transactions with local banks, mainly, by making cash available to customers. But policies are not our friends, it is demanding for a cashless society. Looking at the type of the community we're serving, we become totally out of business. Then we make the second thought, "Go Cashless," utilizing our knowledge of the community to come-up with a lasting solution no one have ever imagine. This is because we have passion for seeing and understanding the big economic picture before building previously unimaginable technologies. 

AS ADVOCATES OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION.

Our guiding principles are to ensure the world is managing the barriers to Financial Inclusion in a responsible and socioeconomic manner.  In the end, we want to SERVE!

Tricycle drivers: 950

Retail Vendors: 546

Total Clients: 1,496

I am applying to Solve-MIT in order to gain access to expert Technologies and Legal assistance. Also to gain international exposure in the media and conferences, and establishing a presence as a local entrepreneur who is trying to catch attentions of the global Investors to invest in solving this particular problem in Nigeria and Africa. Cutting a long story short, I want to participate in the global race as a Solver Team to achieving the Solve-MIT's core objectives.

A mobile application to open new accounts, manage transactions and access the KCC-Funders program or non-interest loans.

KCC-Funders: This is a program initiated under LaLITATech that focuses on bridging the gap between the African innovative startups or idear, industry disruptors and the VCs or funders. It is a crowdsourcing platform  that has partnership with top African billionaire, philanthropist, government agencies, industries, organizations, and entrepreneurs. LaLITATech is the main facilitator for the program.

CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM : We use points to represent different values of money depending on various factors, we provide real-time updates and transparency to Backers and recipients, we deposit the points in a special wallet account that can only be converted to money at the end of the program, and we use blockchain technology to secure and verify transactions.

Through our innovative financial services for retailers and vendors, LaLITATech contributes to SGD Goals 1, 2 & 9 (No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure).

• LaLITATech offers a digital solution to financial inclusion.In one year period, we will help more than 3,000 clients to perform sophisticated financial transactions and obtain grants or non-interest loans.

  • Since our core business model is so laser-focused on increasing financial inclusion, our impact goals are obviously most aligned with SDG #1, No Poverty. 

• To eradicate extreme poverty among all our clients(estimated to be about a million people), currently defined as those living on less than $1.25 a day, by 2028.

  • Decreasing the proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural).

Cost of poverty: Lost economic productivity, increased health and crime costs, increased costs resulting from child homelessness and maltreatment, unstable housing among families with children, avoidable health and special education costs, hunger, increased health care costs, poor educational outcomes, premature death because of poverty and inequality, among others, are measures of economic and social costs of  poverty in Nigeria and Africa which is estimated to be several billions and trillions of dollars every year.

Evidence suggests that economies with high financial inclusion have significantly lower poverty rates. Through LaLITATech, poor people will be able to access financial services, improving their lives, increasing their economic opportunities and reducing economic and social cost of poverty.

It is straightforward to see how digital financial inclusion solutions can be quantified. 

• This measured amount of digital financial inclusion solutions also has a clear economic value (the cost of poverty, or the energy, skills, or time otherwise wasted because of lack of resources to deliver growth); so the measure of decrease in number of poor people, could be easily expressed as a decrease cost of poverty or energy savings from lack of resources.

The fintech industry facilitates financial inclusion. According to the World Bank, financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way. Using LaLITATech, poor people are able to access financial services, improving their lives and increasing their economic opportunities. Because evidence suggests that economies with high financial inclusion have significantly lower poverty rates.

Software & Mobile Application: They form the core feature of our platforms.

Manufacturing Technology: In the production of our Gadgets or Electronic device.

Crowd sourcing/Social networking: Platform for fund rising.

Blockchain technology: for verification and tracking of transactions.

Machine learning: for marketing and customer relations.

Finding the right people, that are not only capable but also share thesame vision and are personally compassionate to our goals and objectives, regardless of race, religion, gender, culture or tribe.

We are raising investment capital that can generate revenue and cover our expenses.

So far we have raised about $100,000.00 from our investors. And we have generated more than $413,810 in six months from transaction commissions and sales of POS.