Financial inclusion, safety at the core of our operations- Adewole, CEO Cashir

The Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) of Cashir, Wole Ademola Adewole in this interview with Daily Times, spoke on how Cashir has complemented the efforts of various players in the financial ecosystem to ensure that everyone has equal rights to financial freedom, among many other salient issues discussed. Excerpts:

Kindly run us through your journey in tech, capturing your schooling, desires as a child and how you ended up here?

I have always loved tech. The ability to automate analogue systems has fascinated me from my early years. Though I had limited knowledge at the time, the way tech was deployed to simplify systems and improve efficiency always looked so amazing. Because of this, while studying at UNILAG as an undergrad, I joined an association which provided free capacity strengthening on web and software development.

During this time, I learned the fundamentals of coding and product design. This propelled me to become a freelance web developer and I delivered over 30 professional websites for notable organisations.

I graduated from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Unilag as one of the top graduating students from the department, but I personally felt like I left Unilag another certificate in web development.

With my continued interest in tech, I explored ways to apply my tech skills in urban and regional planning to automate analogue systems, but also I continued my freelance web developer journey. This led me to apply for a master’s in geospatial information systems and remote sensing.

This I believe was a middle ground that combined my knowledge of urban planning and my interest in tech. I was lucky enough to have been accepted for my master’s in the University of Southampton, one of the leading institutions in the UK and globally. Living in the UK for a bit, I paid attention to some of the amazing advancements. I documented a list of ideas that could be modified and localised in Nigeria to solve several problems.

Today, one of those studies has led me to founding Cashir, a financial solution that enables people to access cash anytime and anywhere across Africa. For me, learning is continuous. As such, I am currently completing my PhD in GeoAI, which is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) fused with geospatial data, science, and technology to accelerate real-world understanding of business opportunities, environmental impacts, and operational risks.

What triggered the idea called Cashir today?

The idea behind Cashir came from a real-life problem I faced multiple times while travelling within Nigeria, particularly in peri-urban and rural areas. Because there is a high dependency on cash for daily activities like transport, feeding etc. Many people always have cash with them which is often withdrawn from financial access points such as ATMs or banks.

But in scenarios where you run out of cash and the closest ATM is some distance away, you have to incur a cost to travel to a financial access point and this in itself becomes difficult and inconvenient if you don’t have the cash to fund your travel. I faced a similar challenge where I completely ran out of cash and did not have the funds to transport me to the nearest financial access point to get cash.

Many Nigerians face this issue daily and this is because financial access points are fixed while people are mobile, moving from place to place daily. This was how the idea of Cashir struck me what if financial access points were also mobile?

What collaborations did you have to leverage to realise the plan?

Not having a core financial background, I knew I had to get someone with expert knowledge of the field to complement my expertise. As such, I have two co-founders who collectively have over 15 years of experience in the financial sector across Africa. This was the first collaboration that was critical to the setup of Cashir.

After this, we looked to establish collaboration with financial and tech organisations that can support our infrastructural systems among many other partnerships we have grown to establish within the startup and tech ecosystem. Currently, we have received a Microsoft for Startup Founder’s Award which is one out of many testament to our growth since conception and how collaboration has been instrumental to our milestones so far.

Kindly segment the services being offered by Cashir?

We focused on the pain points people have when performing financial transactions or in need of cash. These include out-of-service issues, standing in long queues at ATMs before accessing cash etc. With these in mind, our solutions are tailored to provide easy access to financial access points through a distributed network of cash agents that enables people wherever they might be.

Imagine being in an unfamiliar location and you run out of cash. Because you are not familiar with this environment, you might not know where the closest ATM is or the mobile money agent. With Cashir App, all you need to do is initiate a “withdraw cash” transaction and you will be connected to a cash agent within walking distance of your location via an “uber-like” map navigator. These and many more features are possible with the Cashir App.

Why should the average Nigerian opt for Cashir over other bill settlement Apps?

The unique concept Cashir App brings to users is the ability to become a cash agent (mobile POS agent) with only your smartphone and provide cash to people in need of cash within walking distance of your location. The incentive for becoming a cash agent is that users get to earn passive income by doing this via the Cashir App. In addition, users can perform other financial transactions at lightning speed.

Today, only 45% of adults in Nigeria are banked according to EFInA 2023. This means that about 55% of the adult population in Nigeria are still financially excluded. This is not only a Nigerian problem, it is global and though we have banks, they are unable to service the last mile customers, particularly in remote areas. Cashir is here to complement the efforts of various players in the financial ecosystem to ensure that everyone has equal rights to financial freedom.

Safety has always been a huge concern amongst FinTech products. What things are in place to protect your customers?

Safety is a priority for us at Cashir. As such, we conduct an integrated know your customers (KYC) for all registered users on our platform and this helps us rate users based on a determined confidence level which we use to monitor user activities. In addition, have thresholds for maximum transaction volume users can perform depending on their KYC classification.

Furthermore, we are always innovating and rethinking how we make sure our systems are fraud-free and safe.

Where are you headed? Have you designed plans to scale up your services and activities?

We have a clear roadmap to grow our user base to over 500,000 in 24 months and also expand to other African countries, starting in West Africa. In 5 years, we expect to have achieved a unicorn status of 1 billion valuation which will be evident by our user base growth and transaction volumes. But more importantly, we are on a mission to facilitate 1 million Africans to become financially banked.

The target audience for Cashir App is the adult population between 18 – 50 years who have smartphones. Ideally, our early adopters are people between the ages of 18 – 35 years and this is because they are more adventurous and ready to try out new things. Examples of this population group include students in universities, early career workers, market women, etc. As we grow and become more integrated, we expect more people from other age brackets will begin to use the Cashir App.

Are you open to investments in Cashir, and what kind of investors will you settle for?

We are very much open to investment from VCs, and private and angel investors which will help us boost our service delivery and achievement of our roadmap. Currently, we are actively fundraising to achieve a $250,000 pre-seed fund injection which will be a combination of Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) and direct equity options.

What are the major challenges of young Nigerians in the FinTech space?

There are always challenges at different phases of a young startup. Regulatory limitations, funding, and getting the right team to mention a few. But what is important is to be determined and have a passion to leverage collaboration and support from partners and teams to look for innovative solutions to these challenges. The success of a startup depends on your problem-solving skills and your ability to achieve results.

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There are many competing fintech apps in the Nigerian market today and as such, people can get confused or think that we are one of the many doing the same thing. However, the Cashier App idea is unique; we are the first fintech taking on this challenge within the African landscape.

To differentiate ourselves we are actively engaging with key players across the financial ecosystem to provide a clear understanding of our solution. Also, it is no news that there has been a harsh economic reality with the prices of basic amenities increasing daily due to several factors. As a young startup, we are also affected by this and this ties to our roadmap of fundraising which is to enable us to continue to develop our product and grow.

There is this belief that Africa is the best location for FinTech applications. Do you share this idea?

Yes, there has been a lot of attention on Africa and this is visible by the number of startups springing up across the continent. Africa has a lot of visible problems which can be solved by innovative solutions. From an investment perspective, the over 1.2 billion population in Africa supports the growth potential which is one of the key drivers for increased interest in Africa.

How are you coping with the competition amongst other bill payment platforms available?

Cashir is a unique solution that is different from how our competitors are looking at financial inclusion across Africa. Our unique selling point to users is that people can make passive income using our app by becoming a mobile POS to people within walking distance.

How does one sign up to your platform?

Our ideal user is someone between the ages 18 – 50 years who actively has reason to make payment for things through a combination of cash and bank transfer in the course of their daily activities e.g. supermarket purchases, public transport, restaurant payment, etc. They will ideally have a Bank Verification Number (BVN) or a National Identity Number (NIN).

Also, they have a smartphone (either an Android or IOS device) through which they can download and access Cashir App. Cashir App can be easily downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple Store. If you are confused, please visit our website (https://cashir.app/) and you will be directed to the appropriate store to download.