Innovectives to drive agency banking with 1000 agents 

Innovectives is set to go live with agency banking, through a brand identity known as Kesh Express, which would be launched in the coming week in six states, with over 1000 agents, to drive agency banking.

The move is another form of payment channel that will complement other channels of electronic payment system, designed to further drive cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, where the process of financial transaction with agency banking was demonstrated by Innovectives, its technical partners, RedCloud Technology, and TSI Global Technologies, said all the technicalities needed to achieve a successful agency banking with Kesh Express have been built into a solid platform for its rollout.

The Chief Executive Officer, TSI Global Technologies, Tunji Agbaje, described TSI as an experienced technical partner to RedCloud Technology in Nigeria, with a role to provide the technical support needed for Innovectives to drive agency banking in Nigeria through Kesh Express.

“Since we represent RedCloud in Nigeria, we provide technical support, using the RedCloud technology solution. We are working closely with RedCloud to provide the much needed technical support that our clients may need,” Agbaje said.

Speaking on the issue of interoperability and security, Agbaje said the TSI solution would address the issue of interoperability in a highly technical way.

“We already have about six banks on our platform. But any bank customer can do financial transactions with us, even when the customer’s bank is not registered with our super agent, which is Kesh Express. So long as the bank is connected to the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), we can move money to the bank and from the bank because we have a solution that is highly interoperable.”

He said various security layers have been built into the system to address the issue of online security.

According to him, aside the security layers, Kesh Express would only register agents that already have an established business on its platform, and such agent is already known in the community, to avoid using agents who had no prior business and could be tempted to abscond with depositors’ money.

The Chief Technical Officer, Innovectives, Kevwe Ogomigo, who gave full details of the operations of the agency banking, said it operates ‘cash in’ and ‘cash out’ financial transactions. He explained that the cash in would enable customers deposit cash with the agent, who will keep the cash and immediately transfer the equivalent amount to the customer’s bank account, using a mobile phone device, and the customer gets instant bank alert on the deposit.

For the cash out transaction, customers have the opportunity to get cash from his or her bank, through the agent, without going to the bank or interfacing with the bank. The bank has to notify the customer that his or her account is about to be debited, and a code is sent to the customer’s mobile phone to approve the transaction. The customer will then supply the code to the agent and the agent will use the code to effect the debit transaction from the customer account. The code comes to the bank customer and remains on the mobile device for only five minutes before it is wiped out. So a one-time code is sent for every transaction and the code changes in each transaction. If the customer did not supply the code to the agent, the agent cannot have access to the customer’s account, and the transaction will be declined immediately, Ogomigo explained.

The agency banking uses super agents, aggregators and agents, designed to complement mobile banking and other channels of cashless payment for financial inclusion.