Eyowo allows users to send and receive money through their phone numbers. It is a peer-to-peer payment platform that also incorporates a tax management mechanism that helps small businesses manage statutory deductions and payment to government.
Users that want to make payment merely need to search for the phone number of anyone they want to send money to, and send. The receiver will receive alert that money has been transferred into his or her account. Eyowo also incorporates a voice service where users can dial a unique code that automatically connects them to a computerized call center or human voice to make any transaction. The voice at the other end asks the users to choose their preferred language (i.e Yoruba, English, Hausa) before starting conversation and transaction.
In a country where many people are still illiterate, Eyowo provides an inclusive service that can be used by those who can read, and the ones who cannot. The platform absorbs those who are not familiar with internet banking by providing an interface that sends payments directly to the bank account of receiver by ordinarily entering recipient’s phone number.
Tomi Alao, CEO and co-founder of Eyowo, in a recent interview with the media, shed light on the functionality of the payment system. He said,
“What we have built is a peer-to-peer revolutionary system that allows people to send and receive money.
Now what is very magical and revolutionary about what we have built is that you do not need to have heard about the system to receive funds; the money is accessible on your phone and you will get notification from Eyowo that somebody has sent you that particular amount of money. These are ways you can access the funds automatically without you even knowing about the service.
I mean if you look at the old system, you need to state what bank you use and what your account number is. In this case, that has been eradicated. I just type in your phone number send you money and you see it instantly.
Eyowo does the heavy lifting of notifying the recipient and ensuring they have access to the funds.
A very good analogy is Whatsapp; I mean everybody knows Whatsapp but what made it become popular is that you do not have to be on the platform before I can send you a message. Whatsapp does the heavy lifting of notifying you that I sent you a message and getting you on-boarded to access the message. The second is that we provide several services. A good example is savings, I mean if you have money on the platform, you can make it generate more money. So we have got a savings option on the platform and I think arguably the kind of returns on investment we give to our users is quite good.
Although Eyowo incorporates a lot of financial transaction services, the management feature that helps SMEs manage staff tax deduction by collating and making payment to the appropriate agencies without any assistance will help businesses, asides individuals, find the payment system relevant.
