Human Agent Infrastructure is the Future of Africa’s Banking System
Mobile network operators are the dominant players in Africa’s banking ecosystem. Continent-wide, where the majority of the population lacks access to formal financial services, mobile money has taken off. In Ghana for instance, mobile money has taken an exponential growth trajectory, with MTN amassing 75 percent of the country’s 11M active accounts.
This ‘banking for the future’ narrative is only in its beginning: this September, MTN pulled off a historical first — an initial public offering done through mobile money. More than 100,000 Ghanians purchased MTN shares with their mobile money accounts. It was the largest IPO to ever take place on Ghana’s stock market, according to Quartz.
The Macro Story: On-the-Ground Agents Spearhead Financial Evolution
Behind the scenes of this financial inclusion story is a powerful stat: there are now 13 times more active mobile money agents than there are bank branches and ATMs in West Africa — and in many cases, impossible for consumers to travel to them. This metric reflects market conditions: it’s expensive to set up branches in West Africa. What this trend also reveals is that people depend on their fellow community members to send and receive money. In local communities, people bank each other and depend on banking agents’ expertise to choose financial service products.
This is a story, from an mobile network operator (MNO) perspective, that has existed under the radar. This is because many agents operate independently, earning referral commissions from multiple telecom providers. These independent professionals receive financial motivation, and aren’t required to remain loyal to specific carriers.
The Access team is rewriting this on-the-ground perspective and formula, to empower agents as central to the growth of Africa’s future banking system. These individuals have the power to support local banking while also connecting community developers with investment from overseas. In the same way that Uber unlocked new transport options for consumers and provided jobs for its “driver partners”, Atlas has created a win win for consumers and entrepreneurs
The Reason: Empathetic, Human Relationships Are Irreplaceable
There’s an extensive education, learning, training, and trust-building process required for the expansion of mobile money services in Africa. Moving into the future of building new financial infrastructure, the role that Atlas’s agents take on will become more important. Every day, these individuals:
- Fill “last mile gaps” down to the inch, in areas where people don’t have access to brick and mortar banking infrastructure
- Enable job creation by flexing to demand and cost
- Facilitate KYC and AML to a high degree of precision
- Provide education to local communities
- Connect banking systems to an ethos of compassion and kindness
- Offer services beyond banking
Watch this video, to see this education process in action:
It’s this reason why, according to the Bank of Ghana, Ghanaians prefer mobile money over traditional banking.
Access’s Vision: Human Infrastructure = Basis for Blockchain Technology
Human infrastructure, through agent networks, is a foundational layer of the financial blockchain infrastructure that Access will facilitate. The first app on the network, Atlas, is already live. To scale to 30,000 users in Ghana and Senegal, Atlas relied on 500 banking agents to bank their local communities. All Atlas agents have completed KYC and AML compliance protocols, and serve as a hub for facilitating services such as microloans at a 100% payback rate.
Human infrastructure is mission-critical, for creating trust-based, decentralized banking infrastructure across a continent that otherwise struggles with high rates of fraud, corruption, and failure rates of major financial institutions.
The Micro-Story: Infrastructure, in Practice
The Atlas team maintains local operations in Ghana and Senegal, serving as a hub for banking agents to collaborate and manage their day-to-day. Agents work closely with one another, in addition to strategy and operations teams in New York. In total, there are 3 Atlas Money Offices in Ghana and one in Senegal.
Take a tour of one of the office in Senegal. The last photo features a gift given to Atlas agents, from a banking client:
Outside of Atlas’s offices, team members build brand awareness within local communities. Here’s a photo of Aida, an entrepreneur and one of four community leaders who oversees the finances for a 300-person women’s co-op.
Atlas bankers visit their customers — in many cases, entrepreneurs — 1:1, at their jobs. Agents use a simple smartphone app from Atlas to take care of their customers’ financial needs.
Join Our Journey
We’re spearheading a financial revolution, with key backers and partners. Become a part of the movement today:
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Contributors Statement
This work was a collaboration between the entire Access Network team, ranging from the CEO to CTO, COO, Chief of Staff, and other members of leadership. Emily Burchill, Shannon Wu, Ritika Puri, and Karissa Domondon created this story.
Disclosure
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and are no guarantee of the future performance of any Access Network fund or service. This material has been prepared for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice. Access Network is currently unlaunched and has not announced a token generation event. Blog posts are intended to provide education about the business model and its path to development, only.
