Nigerian fintech company, Kudimoney has obtained a Microfinance banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. This license aligns with the fintechs vision to offer a no-fee, full service, digital bank. They plan to leverage this opportunity to disrupt the regular banking system that is saddled with extra charges.
Hey guys we are now officially a bank wohoo 🥳 🙌, CBN gave us a license. We decided to rebrand to strongly differentiate the new direction. We are now KUDA. We’ve got lots of cool stuff for you @kudabank , follow us so you don’t miss out. We are also at https://t.co/iDjBl6V2yh pic.twitter.com/H2GyEvebjj
— We’re now Kuda! (@KudimoneyBank) June 18, 2019
Reports from 2018 recorded that the CBN recovered the sum of N65 billion from the N143 billion the top 11 banks in Nigeria charged their customers. It is these charges that Kudimoney aims to eradicate. Customers of Kudimoney will enjoy the free banking model—no charges, secure and reliable transactions accessed through smartphones.
Kudimoney who changed their brand identity to ‘Kuda’, intends to leverage the license to offer current accounts and debit cards to their customers. The bank will remain at a pre-launch phase for a few months to offer their services to a few users. They will, however, fully rollout in the 3rd quarter of 2019.
According to Babs Ogundeyi the Co-founder of Kudimoney, they are pretty much excited to usher in new innovations in Africa’s consumer banking system. They plan to focus on growing their customer’s ‘financial lives’.
According to the Kudimoney team, the brand identity change was because a lot of fintech startups were adopting the name ‘Kudi’. They believe that the new direction was the right time for a change. They confirmed that they weren’t surprised over the sentimental attachment to the name ‘Kudi’ as it means Money in certain Nigerian region.