Redefining Innovation In Financial Access With Fingo
What is innovation? Really?
When my co-founders and I embarked on the Fingo journey, we were driven by a seemingly straightforward mission: to make financial tools universally accessible for young people in Africa. From bank accounts to payment and savings options, these services weren’t inherently absent; they were just not easy to access as a cohesive whole.
For many young people, Opening a bank account has traditionally been a daunting task, especially for the younger generation, entangled in a web of paperwork, unnecessary branch visits, and cumbersome procedures for ancillary services. We asked ourselves, “What if there was a way to circumvent all these obstacles?” The answer was Fingo — a platform where opening an account, saving, and transacting could all happen in 5 minutes using technology.
Our journey has been marked by the successful creation of over 100,000 Fingo accounts and an ongoing dialogue with our customers to further refine and adapt our services to meet their evolving needs. This process of reflection and dialogue steers us beyond the buzzwords of “revolution” and “innovation,” challenging us to enhance our solutions in meaningful ways. Is true innovation not more about impactful changes than seismic shifts?
What is innovation in financial services?
The WhatsApp Analogy
Let’s consider WhatsApp as a prime example of digital innovation. Initially, it functioned much like traditional SMS, enabling users to send and receive messages instantly. The groundbreaking difference, however, was its cost structure — WhatsApp offered unlimited messaging for free, diverging from the per-message fees associated with SMS.
While experts might highlight the various technical, architectural, and internet-based distinctions, the core user concern remained simple: seamless communication.
On the surface, WhatsApp and SMS appeared nearly identical. Yet, it was WhatsApp’s subtle, user-focused enhancement that distinguished it, leading to its rapid adoption worldwide.
For me, this underscores a vital insight into innovation: it doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel but often refines it, focusing keenly on user needs and preferences. Innovation, therefore, is as much about refining focus as it is about redefining function.
Innovation is not features
As Chief Technology Officer, in charge of product and tech with my co-founder Gitari (Co- CPO), one of our favorite interviews is of Steven Wozniak. Where he says
Features are not innovation, innovation changes lives. — Steve Wozniak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSEWUPboF4o
This philosophy underscores our mission at Fingo. Our aim extends beyond merely rolling out new features; we are dedicated to pioneering innovations that significantly enhance people’s lives.
From the outset, Fingo was introduced with a concise yet impactful set of features: swift sign-ups in under five minutes, complimentary money transfers, and free savings accounts. This initial simplicity has already yielded profound outcomes. We’ve heard numerous stories from our users, from individuals saving for their dream homes to families transferring money effortlessly. These narratives are a testament to the intuitive design and meaningful impact of our platform, illustrating how even the most straightforward functions can make a substantial difference in our users’ daily lives.
Fingo: Building To Change Lives
At Fingo, we’re driven by a belief that innovation isn’t solely about creating something unprecedented. Our approach focuses on refining and enhancing existing systems to revolutionize the way people engage with them, especially financial services. Our goal is to design solutions that are so intuitive and seamless, that they become a natural part of Africa’s youth’s daily lives.
We’re thrilled to unveil a series of releases starting today and continuing over the next few weeks, designed with this very philosophy in mind. While it’s true that mere features don’t equate to innovation, the right features — thoughtfully designed and implemented — can indeed be innovative. Our latest offerings aim to provide tools and experiences that simplify financial management, making a significant difference in our users’ lives.
Release 1 — Spend Online Safer and Easier with Fingo Virtual Debit Cards
Fingo Visa Virtual Debit Cards
As simple as it sounds, Fingo now allows you to to create a virtual prepaid debit card to spend on various goods and services online. And we’re extremely excited to do this with Visa.
You can create multiple cards instantly! Use them for subscriptions or payments and separate your Netflix charges from your Ubers for example.
We also have set up recurring deposits, allowing you to automatically top up the card weekly or monthly based on how you spend, so you never have to worry if something will decline and better manage your budgeting and spending.
A highlight — and my personal favorite — is the clarity we’ve brought to transaction notifications. Gone are the days of cryptic statements. We have made sure that whenever your card is charged you know exactly who and when. No longer will you deal with card charges that look something like:
C transaction POS KES 250 at g.co/pay# US 29392939210
With a host of other features like freezing / blocking and even terminating and creating a new card instantly, no wait, no hassle.
Fingo Virtual Debit Cards Features
See your transactions clearly on Fingo cards
Release 2 — Fingo Rewards, Get Rewards for living your day-to-day life
We’re extremely excited to introduce you to the first and one-of-a-kind Fingo reward program! A lot of our customers in Kenya are familiar with similar loyalty programs from mobile carriers or retail stores, but we believed we could build one that was unique and useful to you and where you spend your money!
It’s simple, every time you spend on Fingo or use Fingo, you earn “Fingo Coins” which are our loyalty points.
You can then use these coins to redeem rewards inside the Fingo app for whatever you use or may find useful to yourself! No extra cost, no “hidden fees”, just earn as you live your day-to-day life and redeem what’s important. What that looks like:
Fingo Coins
Join our weekly raffle for a chance at prizes
Get discounts at your favorite stores by paying through Fingo Rewards
Pay for airtime using Fingo Coins
Once you’ve earned Fingo coins, you can redeem them for a variety of things, like:
- A raffle to stand a chance to win prizes
- Payment discounts at your favorite vendors or stores
- Purchase airtime
And a lot more coming soon! You already use Fingo to pay to all these places, so let’s reward you the more you pay as you live your day-to-day life!
Release 3 — Budgeting On Autopilot
Most people, want to learn how to better manage their spending, and before you would either have a spreadsheet, or separate app to do this. Instead, on Fingo, we are releasing the first version of our budgeting feature, which we plan to expand with user-requested features over time and help you track your finances more seamlessly. Allowing everyone to easily set up their weekly/monthly budget and track each payment automatically just as you go about paying and using Fingo in your daily life!
We want to empower everyone with the tools to live not just an easier, but a healthier financial life. And this is just for that.
There’s more 👀
Honestly, we are just getting started, and I couldn’t be more excited and grateful to be building this with our world-class team at Fingo. We continue to ask ourselves, what are people saying and what do they need. Very soon you will see more things coming out that we have planned on our roadmap. From today, we want to encourage you, our customers to share your feedback and let us know what you need/want to see next. Our roadmap is now public on the Fingo Tribe Community Forum. Vote for what you want to see next!
Check out our new community forum: Fingo Tribe at https://tribe.fingo.africa
On Fingo Tribe will post regular updates, product features and even allow you to vote on what you want to see next and we will prioritize just that. We want to fundamentally change and improve your relationship with finances, making it easier and healthier, for all young people on the continent, and working tirelessly to share more soon. Let’s keep building “Banking for Africa’s ambitious together”.
Join the ambitious and download Fingo today: https://fingo.africa
