It has been five impactful years since the launch of Advansio Interactive, a leading Nigerian fintech software company that uses cutting-edge digital financial solutions to drive sustainable financial access in Africa.
Fisayo Oludare (Managing Director/ Co-founder) and Ikenna Agugua (CTO/ Co-founder) launched Advansio after they discovered that the most sustainable way to improve financial inclusion was agency banking, a (branchless-banking) unit they started in their former company. ‘This inspired us to partner with financial institutions to reduce the cost of banking through technology and increase access to financial services for everyone,’ Oludare said about the inspiration behind COVr Branchless – Advansio’s flagship and most successful product.
COVr Branchless is a B2B/SAAS agency banking platform that uses geo-tracking to help drive financial inclusion among underserved Nigerians and Africans in the financial services industry. COVr integrates with portable mobile phones, web, and POS devices to automate basic financial operations like account opening, atm card issuance, funds transfer, withdrawal and deposit, and bill payment. It is recognized as one of the top fintech innovations by Africans and trusted by over ten financial institutions across Africa – Diamond Bank, Wema Bank, Taj Bank, Bloom Bank Africa Gambia, Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Jaiz Bank, Nigeria Police Force Microfinance Bank, UBA Guinea and Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF).
SANEF provides an agency banking interoperable platform an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria launched in 2019 to accelerate financial inclusion. It is dedicated to managing all agent banking operations across Nigeria and boasts over 500,000 registered agents and has Advansio as its exclusive partner. Since COVr launched in 2017, the platform has added over 743,828 new bank accounts from the core North, core South, and the East, and West of Nigeria with transactions that amount to 15,000,000+ and $500 million in value.
COVr has helped financial institutions reduce the cost and stress of banking both for the end customer and the institutions, especially in remote areas. Banking services are now more accessible in the most remote villages without banks having to incur the overhead costs and logistics of physical structures and staffing to provide banking services to millions of Nigerians and Africans.
While Advansio has recorded considerable success in its quest to improve financial inclusion in Africa, its journey hasn’t been without challenges. ‘Like every new business, trying to convince local businesses to use our solution was an issue. But it became a little easier when we got one of the major banks on board as they became a point of reference in subsequent dealings,’ Oludare disclosed.
Advansio has expanded its operations beyond the shores of Nigeria and Ghana (where it recently launched as Oakwood Advansio) following a $500,000 expansion partnership with the Oakwood Group, into The Gambia (in partnership with Bloom Bank), Guinea (with UBA Guinea), Senegal and Sierra Leone. Additionally, Advansio has launched a new digital bank engine called OneBuxx which is currently powering one of their Nigerian client’s digital banking omnichannel services – a project Oludare and Agugua are bullish about, insisting that ‘it would change the way we bank in Africa.’
Two of Advansio’s newly launched FinTech products are Grappo and Byopay. Grappo is world-class shared credit management and risk appraisal platform that is fully digital and automated, with a wide range of current solutions and integrated systems for both licensed institutions and individuals to provide financial services while Byopay is a future-forward solution that aims to replace and reduce the use of a card and mobile payment with biometric signature and a unique code.
In recognition of the brilliant work by the founders Olufisayo Oludare and Ikenna Agugua, Advansio was awarded The Best Startup at Startup Istanbul in 2017, a competition with over 100 contestants from 65 countries. In 2019, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria described Advansio as an ‘industry affiliate whose performance has enhanced the industry’s goal of financial inclusion.’
Advansio was most recently awarded the 2022 Stellar Business Award for Financial Technology in Africa and the 2022 MEA Markets’ African Excellence Award for its fintech innovations.
In her quest to improve financial access in Africa, Advansio is preparing to launch the first edition of FinTech for Growth, an event that will bring together the big-name players and smartest minds in the Nigerian Fintech industry.
The event is scheduled for August 11, 2022, at 9 a.m. at the Four Points Hotel, by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria where the Advansio Fintech for Growth Start-Up Fund will also be launched. One female tech pioneer will be awarded one million Naira to help her business grow. Attendance is free but registration is mandatory, participants can register at https://advansio.com/fintechforgrowth/
