2018 Banking Tech to Rule Nigeria, Africa
This afternoon, I made a video presentation to a banking trade group in Ghana. A bank director asked me a simple question: "Could you offer your insight on any important banking technology that will come in 2018, here in Africa".
Simply, I told him "Voice Banking" but it may not be a bank product, but likely from a fintech. We have experienced ecommerce, journeying on mobile commerce, and right now, this is the age of voice-commerce. For Africa, there is no emerging financial technology that is coming in 2018 that will be bigger than voice, and banking (not necessarily banks) is going to be the clear beneficiary in Africa
Globally, Alexa, Bixby, Siri, Cortana, Assistant and more will evolve. But a startup will emerge in/on Africa where voice computing will be most critical, due to our low literacy rate, and make voice a great business. With Google Tez, this will be huge, as the path for financial inclusion, of Africa's unbanked and underbanked citizens, will be straightened.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Voice banking will be presented as secure and convenient and will open new vistas for a really brilliant startup to set a new basis of competition in the fintech world. 2018 is the year of Voice Banking in Nigeria, and Africa. If you have the capabilities, go for it.
You are right, voice recognition is going to play a key role in mobile payment solution in Africa, a continent where a large percentage of the population are unbankable, illiterates and still hide money in holes, under the bed % in kolo (box for keeping the money), Alajo (thrift collector).
Trust is a key factor and voice recognition in mobile solution has a major role to play in Africa in the nearest future.
For instance, Wechat Payment, a mobile payment solution (owned by Tencent) has a voice recognition option for payment solutions.
Sounds like it could be it, let's see...
Nice insights.
