Raven Bank, a fintech company has recorded about 500, 000 customers in its two years by bridging the gap between financial services and its consumers despite economic woes.
It was initially established to be a one-stop shop for different bank accounts of its customers, connecting and managing these bank accounts on a single dashboard using the bank app. It has now evolved into a digital bank
Uchenna Nnodim, CEO of Raven Bank spoke of the bank’s transition into more services in trying to fill gaps in the banking industry at its second-year anniversary last Friday.
“When we launched our first product, we realised that there is a huge gap in the banking industry regarding the quality of service delivered. We also saw that there were different ways people wanted to use their money, which was impossible.
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“Figuring that out made us create products that are hassle-free and ensure seamless transactions. This we have achieved and earned the trust of our customers,” he said.
He added, “As of today, we have over half a million individual customers. We also have 5,000 businesses currently using a couple of our products. We have transacted over a million dollars worth of our different products.”
Nnodim mentioned that to ensure that the unbanked are banked, the institution is setting up its USSD code to be launched later this year.
“We believe that we can extend some digital services to people in the villages and they don’t need to have smart phones to do so. Financial inclusion can be successful if you eliminate smart phones and we are trying to see how we can build all our services without having to rely on a smartphone and that’s where the USSD came in,” he said.
Nnodim commented on the recently passed ISB bill at the House of Representatives saying it would create trust for digital banks and the financial ecosystem generally.
“It is a welcome development for our economy in general and for consumer protection’s sake, if such bills don’t exist it doesn’t create a trust for having institutions like ours and it will help the financial ecosystem,” he said.
Chidinma Onukogu, the chief financial officer spoke about the customers’ safety and security of funds, saying that the bank is fully licensed by all regulatory bodies.
“We are fully licensed to operate in this space, there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to Raven, we are here to help you save more, be more and earn more,” she said.
Onukogu said Raven has seen significant growth despite the bank’s just two years of operation, citing that in 2022, the company started the year with 150,000 customers and ended it with 470,000 customers, also laying a solid foundation for the bank’s future growth.
She also sighted that during the cash crunch, the bank experienced a surge in users from 10,000 to 15,000 daily transactions to over 22,000, a 40 percent increase in downloads.
“We had a lot of downloads during that period. A lot of people relied on us to receive their funds. It speaks a lot to our reliability even when there’s a crisis in the financial service system,” she said.
With the increasing risk of cybercrime due to the hike in online payments, Raven assures customers of tight security measures in place.
Prince Nwachukwu, COO of Raven said, “ We have multiple verification steps against cybercrime, you cannot reset your password without face identification
Raven Bank, offers products such as “Raven Overdraft,” “Raven Virtual Card,” “Raven Business Banking,” and “Raven Atlas.”
