'Small businesses need support to drive Nigeria's economy for...
ing an account. ere is no cost to opening an account, there are no minimum deposits, there is no minimum account opening balance.
Where do you see Kuda Business five years from now?
We feel that as far as economic and business prospects are concerned for Nigeria - it will be driven by small businesses. And, for small businesses to be able to drive the economy for prosperity, they need support. In ve years, we want to be the bank that is supporting small businesses because small businesses make up about 90 percent of the business landscape.
is fact gets overshadowed by a couple of large corporations that will always be well served by the larger banks. But the smaller businesses, the market woman on the road, in the markets, the guy that owns a shop on your street - all those people need nancial support, they need access to credit, they need di erent things that the big banks don't have time for. So, we want to be the bank that has the time for small businesses and empowers them because it's only when these businesses ourish that the country will prosper.
The product, Kuda Business, just reached a milestone of 100,000 SMES; what does this mean for
the product and what other milestones are you aiming to achieve within the year?
Reaching 100,000 SMES on Kuda Business is a testament to the impact we’re having on the Nigerian business landscape. It validates our approach to simplifying complex nancial tasks and empowering entrepreneurs. We aim to deepen our support for nd businesses beyond just transactional banking. Kuda plans to add features such as nancial advisory services, tailored credit solutions, and educational resources that drive business growth. We also intend to strengthen our network of partners, providing seamless integration with accounting so ware, inventory management tools, and other business solutions. e goal is to further streamline operations for our clients and position Kuda Business as the central hub of their nancial activities
Every tech product is divided into the front and back end; can you walk us through the technology that supports this product?
Our choice of technology is dependent on what is best for the services being o ered. We typically consider speed, stability, and scale when we’re making our decision. ere are a lot of businesses that want to scale in terms of their operations, so our choice or use of technology is based on and streamlined to whatever those businesses need to operate e ciently as they scale. Without being speci c, we use best-in-class technology to make sure that we meet our customers’ needs.
How have you prioritised security for users of this product?
Any business that doesn’t put security rst with respect to the products or the underlying infrastructure basically is sitting on a time bomb. We have invested a lot in security, from the components that make up the engine that powers Kuda Business, to the interface that users sign in to on their mobile devices or on the web and other utility services. We are well aware of the increase in fraud cases globally, so we are always working to keep the systems secure even while we try to roll out products as quickly as possible. Security is de nitely a key factor in the development of our products. We de nitely wouldn’t want to see our customers defrauded, and particularly not because of something we could have prevented through security controls.
One thing we can’t take away from tech is down times; if for any reason there is a downtime, what is the time frame for resolution?
We aim for 99.9% uptime but if there is a downtime, we let our users know as soon as possible and send them an update as soon as things are stable. We can’t necessarily give a general time frame for service restoration because downtimes could vary. is is why letting our customers know what’s going on is important. Let’s say you can’t make a transfer because a third-party bank or service is unavailable, you most likely would have received a message from us letting you know what’s going on.