Our journey began a couple of years ago with Kudimoney, a dream and some lines of code. Since then we have learnt a lot about the frustrations people have with traditional banks, grown our team and put in work to bring our vision of a different kind of bank to life. Today marks our biggest step yet, and we’re proud to finally introduce Kuda, Nigeria’s first free bank, fully licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
We decided to change our name:
Although we were in love with the name “Kudimoney”, we had to change due to the frequent adoption of the “Kudi” name by other FinTech startups. In hindsight we should not have been surprised it became the name of choice amongst FinTech startups, because in our launch region (Nigeria) Kudi means money. The new direction was a perfect excuse for a name change.
Our idea of banking is one that the customer comes first. We wanted to build a bank that people will love, so it was fitting that we ended up with the name Kuda, which means Love in Shona language.
What is Kuda and how is it different?:
Kuda is a digital only bank that runs predominantly on smartphones, though we also have a USSD channel. This means we do not need physical locations to provide full banking services.
Being digital only means we save all the money we would have spent on maintaining branches, as a result we can afford to charge a lot less than other banks do.
We profit when our customers are happy to keep their money with us, so we do not charge card maintenance fees or account maintenance fees or COT or any other code name that is used to extract fees from you.
Beyond free services, Kuda is different because our app takes the pain out of managing spending and saving. Every user has clear insights on where their money is going and they can automatically save whenever they spend.
We have built our core systems from the ground up, based on 21st century technology, rather than simply building over existing legacy software. This “full stack” approach means we can process enormous amounts of data in real time and send you actionable information and analytics that help you stay on top of finances. All whilst staying secure and reliable.
For us, this is just the beginning. We have more work to do to transform what banking means in Nigeria and we’ll be thrilled to have you in our corner as we move forward with our plans.
What is next?:
Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll use this blog to introduce the team that’s building the bank, and give you early access to some of the features we’re most excited about.
To be one of the first people to use Kuda, simply join the waitlist for an exclusive invite on www.kudabank.com .
We look forward to being your bank.
Love from:
The Kuda Team.
