In the last five years, financial institutions in Africa have made big steps toward digital banking. More people and businesses are choosing digital self-service over traditional brick-and-mortar locations, paper records, and hard currency.
For the time being, African challenger banks and traditional banks must rely on foreign technology solutions developed for Western markets. Many of these solutions are hard to use because they are expensive, don’t fit the market well, or don’t have technical support in the area.
In order to better digitize banks across Africa and facilitate the emergence of a fully automated and connected financial ecosystem, Appzone Group (now Zone), a pan-African fintech software provider that has grown to become a payment infrastructure company, has carved out its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform from the existing business into a new business entity named Qore.
The company used to be made up of four different departments. Now, the top commercial banks, fintechs, and neobanks can use its platform to offer new, specialized financial services.
Qore has offices in Nigeria and Kenya and clients all over Africa, including Ghana, the Gambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, and Senegal. It helps traditional banks make the transition to digital, but many of them are still using old systems that make it hard for them to compete.
Qore processes about $11.9 billion in transactions every year for 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance organizations, for a total of 21.6 million transactions. Its systems produce 12 million new cards annually, disburse over $1.7 billion in loans, and handle $200 million in deposits for 20 million hosted accounts.
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Digital banking big shift
Emeka Emetarom, co-founder and CEO of Qore, says the company will keep pushing African financial institutions to compete at the highest levels of performance and innovation.
“We know what’s stopping financial products in Africa from reaching their full potential and ending the problem of financial exclusion, which has been going on for a long time. So, Qore is shifting its focus to making banking across the continent simple and easy. A business that “Because on BaaS, we are optimistic about our future and the future of digital institutions may now provide highly relevant goods at a fraction of the cost because to Qore’ofmarket fit and cost-effectiveness.
For immediate, no-cost interoperability with other market participants, we are also making the platform’s many connections with major payment systems.
We know what’s stopping financial products in Africa from reaching their full potential and ending the problem of financial exclusion, which has been going on for a long time. Genetically African cloud-native core banking and integrated channel solution, according to the company’s co-founder Umukoro.
The platform is flexible enough to meet the needs of African banks and fintechs, and it is easy to get help from people in Africa. End to the enduring problem of financial exclusion. Thus, Qore is shifting its attention to enabling limitless and simple banking across the continent. Because we have fully digitized and automated the operations and products of over 500 Financial Institutions on the continent, we are ready to take on the rest of Africa,” Mudiaga remarked.
Appzone Group Carves Out new company to Digitize African Banks
What to know about Qore
Qore supports immediate card issuance, in addition to a merchant services platform, USSD interfaces, payment ecosystem connectors, and merchant services capabilities. The platform also has modules that automate the entire lending process, collect payments from various accounts via direct debit, and support Agent Banking. Financial technology companies such as digital lenders and neobanks, as well as more traditional financial institutions such as Commercial Banks, MFIs, Mortgage Banks, and Consumer Lenders, have access to these features.
The platform is adaptable to the needs of African banks and fintechs thanks to its flexible design and ready access to local assistance.
During the company’s Series A funding round in 2017, Appzone received $10 million from CardinalStone Capital Advisers, a Lagos-based investment group. “It’s been incredible to see Appzone expand and transform into what is today Qore since we made an investment there, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be at the forefront as Qore charts a new course for digital banking in Africa,” Yomi Jemibewon, Partner and Managing Director of CardinalStone Capital Advisers
As the only African Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform and the de facto provider of banking technology in the OFI segment, Qore has had a significant influence on the Nigerian and African financial services ecosystem over the past decade.
The establishment of the first cloud-based Digital Core Banking and omni-channel software in Africa, the introduction of the first self-service platform for instant debit card issuance in Africa, and the development of the first and only correspondent banking automation platform with all Nigerian commercial banks integrated are also significant achievements for the company.