Kora is working toward revolutionalizing financial service provision beyond Traditional banking
Kora is a new financial institution intending to solve several financial challenges facing people in Africa. Billions of people around the world still remain unbanked which make them handicapped of enjoying financial benefits. In Africa most especially in the rural area many people do not access to banking and financial services which is as a result of some factors which include lack of document for identification, lack of trust in banking system, rigorous registration process. Many financial institution mostly bank prefer establishing in urban areas and do not capture people in the rural area that need financial services mostly this is because opening a branch in rural environment remain unprofitable due to high cost of building and infrastructure, high staffs salary etc. as a result of this, few banks in rural areas charge high fees for account maintenance, withdrawal on ATM. There are so many attempts which have been made to solve the problem listed above. One of this is the local ad hoc network (friends and family, payporte agent, hawalas) that render some financial services similar to that offer by banks but they are not able to break the barrier totally because they lack consistency, scalability problem and credit histories are lacking. Mobile banking is another solution which has existed. Mobile banking is effective in term of speed but interoperation between different countries is the major challenge. Blockchain technology offer good features such as low transaction cost, proper data and information storage but the technologies require greater understanding due to its sophisticated features, accessing require internet access which is expensive in Africa so the blockchain technology might be out of choice.
Kora has study the past and it’s ready to build the next future financial system which factor in cost, accessibility and existing community engagement. Kora believe the people that need financial services mostly are those with least wealth and that is the reason why kora financial services will be affordable to accommodate those belonging to these low income earners. As previously been discussed, accessibility is another factors that is very important and that is the reason while kora will not only be accessible on the internet but also be available offline. Kora will also engage some existing ad hoc agent instead of displacing them.
Who can benefit from kora financial service?
- Users: These include anyone who is interested in financial services of kora network. However, users will need to comply with financial regulation in the country of residence in order to enjoy kora services
- Providers: providers are registered financial service providers (including banks, local financial service providers which will help the users to access financial service through the kora network. The providers will do this in compliance with regulations. This provider will be able to give all these services on kora network because have wide access with turn of features on kora network.
- Agents: agent that offer financial service are very common in rural areas such include payporte agents etc. kora agent will serve as a point through which users of kora convert efiat to physical cash
In order to read more about kora network you can download the whitepaper here. For more information visit any of the following links
https://bountyhive.io/r/thesmallgod
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