Africhange is a blockchain-powered money transfer platform that provides its users with an easy way to send money from Canada to Nigeria.
Although the remittance platform leverages the use of blockchain, the users don’t need to own any bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency to access the platform and enjoy its benefits.
The population of immigrants from Nigeria to Canada surpasses that of other countries. From 2015, the population of Nigerians that have secured a permanent resident permit has tripled. The dynamics of Nigerian culture calls for its citizens in the diaspora to cater to their family back home. This means that there is an incredible need for a good money transfer platform to facilitate sending money home.
Besides the personal reasons for the need for a remittance platform like Africhange, remittances offer a huge amount of economic value for the recipient country. Also, the cost of sending cash overseas is not all that cheap. Some exchanges require their users to pay a transfer fee of as much as 7% for a 200 US dollar transaction.
Fortunately, Nigerian immigrants in Canada now have a simple platform to transfer money back home. The Canada based Nigerian fintech startup launched in December 2020, Africhange announced that it has acquired over 1,000 clients and recorded over $1 million in transaction volumes as at the end of May 2021. That figure has since grown to over $5 million dollars in the space of two months.
The steps to sending money on Africhange are quite easy. Users can send money any time with no trouble converting their Canadian Dollars (CAD) to Naira. The platform can easily be accessed through the Africhange website or the Africhange mobile app available for both android and iOS devices. Africhange provides its users with some of the best exchange rates in the market, and users can see the naira equivalent immediately they type the CAD amount they need to send to the recipient. Also, the platform supports all banks in Nigeria, ensuring ease and comfort in the remittance procedure.
To make sure security and safety is in place, Africhange has taken several measures. Here are some of them:
1. Canadian Financial Regulatory Backing
Africhange is monitored and audited by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) since 2019 with the registration code: M19773759.
FINTRAC is a Canadian financial unit that intelligently fights money laundering and facilitates the protection of Canadians. This is important to emphasize because there is a penalty for unregistered businesses carrying out remittance activities of $100,000 and above.
2. KYC (Know Your Customer) Verification:
An identification verification process is used to verify users and protect the platform from fraudulent and mischievous people. This measure is set up to help financial institutions cut down the rate of fraudulent practices by identifying suspicious individuals. That way, the platform’s users are much less likely to become victims of mischievous and dubious individuals.
3. Use of the Bitcoin Blockchain:
Africhange makes use of Bitcoin (BTC) to power the transfer of money from Canada to Nigeria. When you send funds in CAD, they first are converted into BTC, after which they are converted into the local currency of the recipient. All that takes place on the backend so the user, by no means has to possess any cryptocurrency of their own .
Aside from the protective measures listed above, Africhange also has a policy to make sure administrative, technical, and physical safeguards are put in place to protect against unauthorised use of users’ information on the platform. It also has a 24/7 support team that you can also reach out to in case you need an assistant on your account.
