Pascal Oparada
When Grace Iyama, a single mother of two, wanted to make a cash deposit for the online tuition of her two children, the stress of having to go to the bank to physically make payments petrified her because the banks have become beehives of human activity.
For a lot of Nigerians, like Grace, having access to the banking halls have become problematic due mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic where the banks have employed extra measures to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
It is not unusual to see many customers of the various banks in the country camped outside the banks, sometimes in the scorching sun or battered by the rain.
That is no longer going to be as a Nigerian startup, Tatup International Services, has come to bridge the gap between the customer and the bank in cash deposits.
For Tatup, the idea of driving financial inclusion, especially to the unbanked and under-banked population in the country is a major driving force, says the Chief Executive Officer, Happiness Etuk.
With a simple Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code, users can deposit cash at their own convenience.
For Etuk, Tatup is both a Fintech company and banking agent which uses simple technology powered by USSD code to send cash to any bank account with a token, unlike the regular banking agents who depend largely on PoS machines to make transactions.
Rather than the user queuing at a banking agent’s office waiting to make a transaction, Etuk says Tatup services save the user the time as they only need to buy their card which enables them to generate a token to use in sending their money into the bank. And this can be done even at the comfort of their homes or offices without hassles.
According to him, the idea of Tatup is converting the user’s phone, whether a smartphone or feature phone, into an ATM machine and gives them the capacity to deposit cash with ease.
“Our code is able to push the cash to the bank without the user being physically present in the bank.
“Our agents take the cash and give you our card with which you can generate a code and send the cash into the intended bank account,” Etuk said.
This takes the stress off of the user who has to queue to enter into the bank. It also allows the user to limit the error of wrong or delayed transactions.
Etuk says the generated code or token is the pusher which makes cash deposits seamless.
As the Nigerian government seeks to drive its cashless policy, he says Tatup services help to further deepen or drive the cashless policy of the government.
“In a situation where ten people are supposed to carry cash into the bank, our system makes it possible for them to drop off the cash with our agents who in turn generate the code these people can use in depositing the cash without visiting the bank, ” he said.
This way, Etuk said, Tatup is helping in driving the cashless policy of the government. He said there is no conflict between their services and the cashless policy.
In terms of security, Tatup services are firmly secure, says the CEO, as every card has a unique identifier which every agent or dealer is known by.
The CEO assures that because of this unique coding system, every user is assured that their money is secure and safe.
“We have put so many things in place to make sure that it is secured. You don’t just pick the card from anyone. Every detail of every retailer is with the Central Bankof Nigeria (CBN). Any place there is a retailing point, it is with the CBN.
“There are also security features embedded in those cards which are not visible to the ordinary eye but can be seen by the use of some scanners. We can block and unblock any card from any agent in order to checkmate any fraud in the system, ” Etuk said.
As the company launches its services to the public on September 18, Etuk said the stress faced by customers who find it herculean to access the banking halls will become something of the past.
