INDUSTRY WATCH: BANKING AND FINANCE
sellers of goods and services, and to
redeem deposits for cash. It uses a
network of agents that includes airtime
resellers and retail outlets acting as
banking agents.
FCG’s SAWAPay solution therefore
makes it possible for people in remote,
rural areas without access to formal
financial services and the unbanked
in urban environments to receive cash
directly from relatives in the diaspora.
The service is free to customers.
Building the app
Alan Osoro, FCG Managing Director
K
enyan start-up, First Choice
Global (FCG), broke new ground
in the financial services industry
by providing an instant, free, money
remittance service to Africans working
internationally. For most of FCG’s
customers, conventional banking
facilities or money transfer systems were
prohibitively expensive. The transfer
process took days and, frequently,
recipients of the transfers either had
no bank account or needed to spend
already limited resources getting to a
bank to access their cash.
FCG resolved these issues by creating
an app, SawaPay, that can be linked
to a credit card or bank account in the
United States. The person wanting
to transfer money simply enters the
recipient’s phone number and an
amount and presses send. The money
is received in Kenya in seconds and can
be sent to either a bank account or a
mobile money account such as M-Pesa.
On the Kenyan end, FCG’s solution uses
a mobile phone-based money transfer,
financing, and microfinancing service.
It allows users to deposit money into
an account stored on their phones to
send money using PIN-secured SMS
text messages to other users, including
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INTELLIGENTCIO
The SawaPay app was created in-house;
Alan Osoro, FCG Managing Director,
says the company’s priorities when
beginning this process included: “App
and data security, scalability, UX design,
ease of use and the ability to produce
meaningful data and analytics.”
In order to create an app that was
appropriately designed and tailored
for their users, the company studied
behaviour of Kenyan diaspora in America
to fully comprehend the existing needs
and frustrations that were currently not
being addressed. Initial designs were
shared with a test group and redesigned
following feedback, with a focus on
making the interface both visually
appealing and intuitive.
“Our objective
is to become a
global leader in the
provision of money
transfer solutions
to the largely
neglected emerging
markets by creating
a world-class
money remittance
platform.”
FCG continues to gather data and
analytics from the app to ensure
optimum ease of use and accessibility
for customers. Osoro claims the ability
to gather this data from the app is
beneficial for helping the company to
better understand its user demographics
(to assist in market intelligence to
better concentrate marketing efforts);
customer behaviour (including time
spent completing a transaction to help
‘measure’ user experience) and the
ability to understand the key factors
that differentiate their customers.
Sourcing the cloud
FCG’s challenge on setup was finding
a cloud provider willing to support an
unknown product created by a start-up
and serving an untested market. The
company also needed a cloud provider
trusted by the global financial services
industry, that had a local presence in
Kenya, and, specifically, could guarantee
data sovereignty in America where
FCG had developed partnerships with
currency exchange firms.
“Our objective is to become a global
leader in the provision of money transfer
solutions to the largely neglected
emerging markets by creating a world-
class money remittance platform,” Osoro
says. “To achieve this, we need seamless
integration with financial services
partners across the globe and, therefore,
a cloud provider who can provide a
scalable, secure, and cost-effective
solution that ensures delivery of our
service in the shortest possible time.”
Osoro explains that the company had
multiple requirements when it came to
sourcing a cloud provider, these included:
data security, 24/7 support services,
scalability, system availability, resilience
to cyberattacks, ability to integrate with
other cloud services, data ownership and
locally available infrastructure.
“Dimension Data was the only cloud
provider that met all these criteria as
well as being able to pinpoint exactly
where our partners’ data resides. So,
it gives our partners the confidence
to work with us. At the same time,
Dimension Data is the only global
cloud provider with a presence on the
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