Who would have thought that a day will come when we will make transaction without facing long que that is characteristics of traditional banks, all thanks to digital bank that utilize technology to carry out banking functions; from withdrawing to making payment everything can now be done the comfort of your home.
The threat this digital bank are posing has not gone unnoticed by traditional banks as they have also geared up their customer care activities. Some even responded by creating their own digital bank, of course no business like losing customer.
The purpose of this article is to show you the best digital bank in Nigeria, their service and how good they are. But before that I will like you to take note of the following
Deference between digital bank and mobile bank
Many people think digital bank is the same thing as internet bank, no! They are deferent, internet bank is a part of a bank, it cant stand alone, it is crated to ease transaction while digital bank is a full-fledged bank endorsed by CBN to carryout deposit, withdraw, saving and other function of a bank.
In fact they are the same thing as normal bank just that everything is done online including registration, saving and loan.
Advantages of Digital Bank
Free transaction
With digital by bank you don’t need to pay before you will make transaction, it is free at least up to 20 transaction and some are forever free.
Easy banking
If you have experience what it feels like to que for hours just to create account you will understand what easy banking is all about.
You don’t need to fill any paper everything is in done on the platform and within 10 minute you will have your account very easy and simple.
Card maintenance
Haa, in traditional bank you will be charge for card and maintenance fee every month, this is not the case for digital bank in fact they will go as far as delivering the card to your door step and there is no maintenance charges.
Many features
Neo bank has many feature such as virtual card (also dollar virtual card), investment option, chargeback, link payment, invoice and recurring billing.
Loan
As an individual you can easily get loan from digital bank in Nigeria though the payback time is just a month, it till better than what traditional bank offer.
Interest rate is the unique selling preposition of neo bank in Nigeria; they let us know that traditional bank interest rate is pea nut. With neo bank you can have more than 10% annual interest rate some of the digital bank even gives as high as 15%.
Is digital bank safe?
People ask this question a lot, digital bank is safe just as traditional bank. They were licensed by CBN and insure by NDIC Just like traditional bank they follow Nigeria banking procedure or else they will not be given license.
Best digital bank in Nigeria
Below are the digital banks in Nigeria
Kuda
The first on our list is the most popular of all the digital banks in Nigeria.
Kuda bank was founded by Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha as Kudi, it was later they observe that what their customer want is not another payment platform but a full digital bank that will help people to bank as easy as possible and they pivot into it.
Below are the features you will enjoy with Kuda bank
Free debit card
Unlike physical banks that charges fee for card and card maintenance on Kuda, card and card maintenance is free.
You can request for card once you have #1000 in your balance and you can also create a virtual card to make quick payment online. They have more than 3,000 ATM location where you can withdraw your fund.
Rating and review
On app store (iOS) Kuda bank maintain 4.7 / 5 rating and a lot of good review
On play store Kuda bank have 4.3/5 rating and a lot of good reviews
Free transfer and high interest
On kuda you are allow to make 25 free transfers every month and if you make a fixed deposit (saving) you will receive a 15% annual interest rate, much more better than traditional banks.
Security
Kuda bank is licensed by Central Bank of Nigeria and they are insured by NDIC (Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation).
Spend save
Kuda bank observed that Nigerian don’t have a saving habit so they set out to help their customer by rolling out spend and safe function. You can set up a percentage to safe every time you spend.
Bank overdraft
Sometime you will need urgent cash, instead of going to loan shark that will disgrace you, you can take overdraft (short term loan) from Kuda and pay back in a month.
Mint Bank
Mint is another digital bank in Nigeria that wants to make banking easy for people. It was founded by a microfinance bank called fINWX when they also observed the difficulties that surround banking in Nigeria.
Below are the products they offer
Transaction fee and saving
With Mint current account you should forget about transaction and maintenance fee they don’t make a charge.
Fixed saving with Mint comes with a lot of benefit if it is goal oriented saving that is you are saving till you reach a financial goal, you can earn as much as 36% interest rate.
Like Kuda there is also option to checkmate reckless spending but a little bit deferent from Kuda approach. On every transaction Mint will round it up to the nearest hundred and thousand and send the addition to your saving.
To further help people with reckless spending they introduce money tracker that will track your spending and there is option to limit it to whatever amount you want.
Loan
Mint also give overdraft loan for their customer but you need to have made mint your salary account at least for the last two month before you will be eligible.
Investment
What makes Mint better is that you can make investment with as little as #5,000 with interest rate of 36% per annum.
Rating and reviews
Mint has been rated well on App store with a rating of 4.6/5 and on Play store with 4.3/5 ratings.
Alat
Remember I stated that there are some traditional banks that have taken the bold step to start digital bank, Wema bank is one of them wit.
Alat is a digital bank that has is focus on making banking easy for people, to have account with them you need no paper work with your BVN and name you are good to go.
Below are the product offers by alert.
Saving
Like other bank Alat also offer saving service but the interest is more than the physical Wema bank, you will receive about 10% interest rate per annum and you can also automate your saving such that certain amount is deducted from your account every day, week or month.
Virtual dollar card
On alert you can generate a virtual dollar card which means your money can be change to Dollar and you can use it to make transaction on Dollar requested platform.
Review and rating
As expected, Alat has a poor rating and review on both play store and app store. On play store they have 3.8/5 star rating while on app store they have 3.3/5 star rating.
Sparkle
Sparkle is another digital bank in Nigeria founded by Uzoma Dozie former CEO of Diamond bank (no longer exist).
Apart from persona account you can also create account for your business perhaps this is what boost their customer acquisition rate as they have more than 30,000 customers on their platform at the time of writing this article and have transact over $15 million and save more than #500,000,000.
Below are the product offers by Sparkle
Saving
Like other neo bank Sparkle also allow personalize saving called Sparkle stash” such that money can be automatically saved every time you make transaction and if you have more than #100,000 in your Stash saving you are eligible to earn 3.75% interest rate.
Payment
On Sparkle you can send and receive payment through a generated link. To receive payment with it you will generate link with amount of money you want the person to pay and you can add a message to it.
To pay with it, you will click on the link which will bring you to Sparkle app or website.
Cards
Sparkle offer both physical and virtual card for physical and online transaction respectively with an option to deactivate anytime.
Business account
If you open business account with Sparkle you will enjoy free invoice generator tool, payroll tool and ability to pay tax through the platform.
Review and rating
Sparkle has good rating on both app store and play store.
Vbank
Vbank also seek to ease banking in Nigeria. It is own by VDS microfinance bank and also cater for both business and individual.
Products offer by Vbank are
Registration and transaction fee
Like other digital bank above they ease the process of account creation with address, BVN and passport potograph you will create yourself a bank account very easy and hassle free.
Vbank does not charge any transaction fee and maintenance fee like traditional bank.
Saving
Vbank offer fixed saving and you can earn about 14% annual interest rate, they also have target saving option where you will save to meet a target goal, with interest rate of 8% annually.
There is joint account option where two or more people can jointly own account, this is best for couple who want to do everything together. You will be giving card that both or all of you can use.
Review and rating
Vbank has been given good reviews in both App store and Play store.
Rubbies
Rubbies is another digital banking platform in Nigeria that has it focus on individual and business. With Rubbies you can easily create account for your business.
Below are the product offers by Rubbies
Saving
Like other bank you can also save toward a goal on Rubbies.
Request transaction
On Rubies you can request money from other by just clicking request tab. Once the receiver accepts it they will be debited.
To avoid scam you can reject a request and black list some account if needed be. Transaction is also free.
Card
On Rubbies there are no card maintenance charges and you can generate virtual Dollar card which you can use to make payment online.
Eyowo
Eyowo is a digital banking platform in Nigeria. Their approach to banking is far deferent from other listed above.
Customer on Eyowo make and revive Payment with just phone number isnt that great and you don’t need paper work before you can register, with your phone number you are good to go.
Registration
You can register on Eyowo with an app whch can be found on Playstore and App store or with a USSD code: *4255#
Loan
One of the things I like about Eyowo is that they give out interest free loan to their customer.
Card
You can also generate virtual card (+ Dollar) on Eyowo, which you can use to make payment online
One bank
One bank is own by sterling bank, a traditional bank in Nigeria. They have deferent account for deferent people and they are
Classic account
Normal saving account
Kia kia account
This is for those that have no ID card
Trybe one
Trybe one is a student account
I can save account
For parent that want to save their kids school fees
Domiciliary account
For those that want to receive dollar as payment.
Loan
Both business and individual can request for loan and they can give a much as #5 million loan.
Gomoney
Gomoney is also trying to simplify banking in Nigeria. It comes with hassle free actount registration, with your phone, BVN and passport photograph (electronic) you will create account in less than 10 minutes
Below are their features
Card
Gomoney also issue free card without maintenance fee. You can also generate virtual card for online payment.
Split group payment
This is a better feature; you can buy things with your friends such that you will share the fee. Enough of carrying all the burden.
Recurring billing
Perhaps you are operating subscription model business; there is option to help you bill your customer according to schedule you input.
Raven bank
Raven digital bank have a big goal they want to digitize banking in Africa. On Raven bank, registration is hassle free and you will have no difficulties when banking.
Below are feature in Raven bank
Transaction
Bye bye to transaction fee. With Raven bank you make you pay no fee in any of your transaction.
Card
There is option for debit card and virtual cards on Raven bank and you know what they don’t charge delivery and maintenance fee.
Saving and investment
There is option to save your money on Raven bank with good interest rate and if you want better ROI you can also invest with them.
Umba bank
Umba digital bank is a Kenya company, their focus is to digitize banking in Africa and they are already in Nigeria. They have hassle free on boarding.
Future on Umba bank
Free transaction
It seem fee transaction is the unique selling preposition of digital bank. With Umba bank you should also forget transaction fee.
Cashback
If you mistakenly send money to unknown account you have option to send a charge back, once the owner of the account accept it, you will be credited but they person did not you can launch complain in no time you will get your money back.
Loan
Umba digital bank also offer bank overdraft to their customer with little to no interest rate.
Future of digital bank in Nigeria
While digital bank is on the rise in Nigeria they still have a long way to go, as you can see most of this Neo bank still use physical bank for deposit and their customer care is worst; it was an herculean task to get to customer care of one of the digital bank am using, guess where I found them, it was on twitter they did not respond to their mail neither call.
I will advise you to keep your traditional bank account, dont go about terminating account you can do this when neo bank is fully working in Nigeria.
Conclusion
Above are the number of digital bank you can switch to in Nigeria, some offer free transaction fee while some use virtual Dollar card as their unique selling preposition, it is left to you to choose one that goes with your plan.
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