Digital banking is the future

yinka ogunlami

April 25, 2017 12:34 PM

Digital banks are a response to that unnecessary stress, promising to help you skip the queues in banking halls, avoid forms that are annoying to fill and bypass customer support that just doesn't work.

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If youve ever stood in a queue at a bank for hours, you already know how annoying the traditional Nigerian banking experience can be even with the mobile banking apps everywhere.

What should be a short trip becomes a long and emotional journey that leaves you angry, frustrated and exhausted at the same time. Even the simplest things like opening an account or picking up a debit card can take forever, and these banking apps can't help you with these things.

As you may have guessed, digital banks typically don't have branches. Even if you, for some strange reason, love queues, they don't have a physical location where you can stand in line. Instead, their services are online and can be accessed through the web and apps for mobile phones and tablets.

So my regular bank app is a digital bank, right?

Nope. A digital bank is built from scratch to be entirely digital, making all banking services available to you anywhere you can access the internet. A bank app is just an app offering some banking services, not a full digital experience: you'll still need to go to the bank to get a debit card and activate it, request your account statement, submit documents and often, to get basic customer support.

Ah, I get it now. But don't they work the same way traditional banks do, just online?

Yes and no. Digital banks offer all the banking services you're used to, from account opening to transfers, but they don't just convert those services into online versions. Instead, digital banks redesign banking services exclusively for the online lifestyle based on the needs of people who spend a lot of time online, making them faster and easier to use than those offered by traditional banks.

That's really exciting. Is there any digital bank in Nigeria?

Yes, there is. We heard that Wema Bank recently launched a fully digital bank called ALAT. Apparently, ALAT lets you open an account in five minutes or less with your phone number and BVN, delivers a free debit card you can activate and control from your phone to you anywhere in Nigeria without going to the ATM machine or using the POS. It automates your savings so you don't struggle with putting money away and schedules transfers and bill payments so they're always on time. It's probably the most interesting bank in Nigeria's history and you should try it out. We know we will.

This is a feature by ALAT.

yinka ogunlami