The Difference Between a Digital Bank and a Digital Banking Product (or Digital Product of a Bank)
Banking Trivia: Once upon a time, you had to go the exact branch your account was opened to withdraw money from your bank account.
A lot of people have asked, “What’s the difference between your ALAT digital bank and every other banking mobile app out there?”. I was having a chat on radio yesterday and the same question came up. Industry Leaders & “Fintech Leaders” (whatever that means) and the regular person at home or on the street is asking the same question. So I thought a short post on my thoughts on the differences might be in order.
First and foremost, ALAT is an organization. Just like Wema Bank, Iroko, Payporte, Facebook, Twitter, Uber et al are organizations. As an organization, we have to decide how to go about delivering on our value proposition. What is our value proposition?
ALAT will help people save, period. We will do this by either out-rightly putting money in people’s pockets or by saving them something extra on their costs, as they go about their daily lives. We will deliver this promise via the best customer experience humanly possible.
Maybe we are mad for having this as our sworn promise. But it is what it is and we are not reneging on it.
Now, as an organization with a very clear purpose, we have a number of digital products that help us deliver on our value proposition. These are:
- A digital account opening product. All you need to open your account are: Your Bank Verification Number (BVN), Phone Number, Selfie and a picture of your signature. We’ve made opening a bank account almost as easy as signing up for Facebook.
- A digital, highly advanced, fully automated back-office product. This product verifies your ID and Address with human intervention being used only where absolutely necessary (Did I mention we have the smallest head count in the banking industry?).
- A digital card product. This product allows you choose your card design and your preferred delivery location. Cards get delivered to you within 2–3 business days. You can activate the card and even control where the card gets used (POS, Web or ATM), all from your mobile device.
- An digital account management product. This product ensures that you can carry-out account administration tasks all on your own without having to interact with a human being.
- A digital funds transfer/bill payment product. This product ensures that you can send money to any Nigerian bank account, email or phone number, schedule transfers & bills (DSTV et al) and pay virtually any bill that is payable online. It also allows you to pay with your ALAT account on most online sites (to be live soon) and fund your ALAT account using any debit/credit card issued by any bank in the world.
- A digital savings product. This product allows you create saving targets or set budgets or just stash away loose funds you may have and earn 10% interest per year while you are at it. It moves the monies you need to save automatically (daily or weekly or monthly), without stressing you.
All of these digital products are delivered to customers of the ALAT organization, via a mobile and web app, NOT a physical branch. An app is just a channel through which an organization expresses its value proposition. Branches do the same thing too in a limited form, but we don’t do branches (no apologies for this).
“App” is not equal to “product”.
This is pretty much the same as how Facebook uses multiple products , delivered via its app (and not some physical office), to connect you with new people, friends and family. Imagine what life would look like if you had to get to a “Facebook Office” to sign up for Facebook? Or if you had to speak to a “LinkedIn Officer” to sign up for LinkedIn or upgrade to LinkedIn Premium? Its exactly the same thing with banking. Some things that other banks run ads for are a standard on ALAT:
- We will NEVER ask you to fill a paper form to open an account with us.
- We will NEVER charge you for your first debit card.
- We will NEVER charge you for delivery of that card to any location of your choice within Nigeria.
- We will pay you 10% interest per year on any amount you save using ALAT Goals (1 Naira or 1 Billion Naira is the same in our eyes and we do not apologize for that).
- We will NEVER ask you to visit a physical branch for any reason whatsoever (if you love to physically speak to someone, then maybe ALAT is not for you). That said, you’re always welcome to visit our office (the only physical building we have), at 8, Idowu Taylor, Victoria Island, Lagos. All our customer support is 100% online and then there’s the good old phone call.
- We will NEVER stress you. We’re human too and we know exactly how you feel when banks start speaking “bankese” instead of normal English or Pidgin.
- We will ALWAYS look for ways to save you something extra as you go about your daily life. Life in Nigeria is already hectic enough and we are not about to make it more hectic for you.
With ALAT, you are introduced into a world of banking that is, for the lack of a less corny word, branch-less. ALAT is still not resting on its oars. All of its current products are quite basic if we’re being honest. But guess what? You’ve got to have your basics covered before you move on to the advanced stuff. As I said in a previous write up, a bank without the ability to open accounts for users is not a bank. Somethings just must be in place before you can even compete.
We’ll be releasing ALAT V2 soon. That’s where the real fun begins. Till then, share this post with people around you who are confused on the difference between a digital bank and a digital product.

P.S. If you haven’t joined ALAT, do so now and take control of your money. You can use my referral code PSCALU . (Yes, I’m shameless like that).
