3 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU SEND MONEY HOME TO NIGERIA THIS HOLIDAY!!

It’s that special time of the year and you need to get money home to loved ones back in Nigeria safe and fast no hassles. This may be your first time and it may be your 100th time of sending that money home. One thing is clear, it's time for you to stop getting cheated out of your hard earned money.

Unlike banks, big money transfer companies or that friend who sends on your behalf and who plays the exchange rate game with you, TransferWise offers a transparent, fast and much cheaper option to send money home to Nigeria. READ 3 key advantages of using TransferWise to send money to Nigeria: 

1. 85% cheaper to use
   TransferWise uses the mid-market exchange rate – without the hidden markup fees that your bank or older money transfer providers use – thus making it up to 8x times cheaper to send money abroad compared to using a bank. When sending hard earned money to loved ones whether to help with key projects or general upkeep, every amount you can save means you can SEND MORE home or use abroad. Whichever way, TransferWise clearly MAKES SENSE for sending money home to Nigeria or any country for that matter.
   
   
   
   
2. TRANSFERWISE ENSURES FAST TRANSFER TO YOUR LOVED ONES NAIRA ACCOUNT
   This is even more fantastic if you are traveling home as well as it saves you the hassles of transferring dollars to a dorm account in Nigeria and then trying to convert to Naira.
   Good luck with that given the current exchange rate.
3. SIMPLE TO USE & TRANSPARENT
   Simple to use and calculate your savings right away. In fact, you can use the calculator in this article to know exactly what your loved ones will receive straight up without any confusion. Sweet.

If you hadn’t heard about TransferWise before well you will find they are an interesting and very experienced bunch led by Taavet Hinrikus (first ever Skype employee) and his co-founder at Skype, Kristo Kaarman they have built TransferWise out of their own frustrations at the lack of transparency the banks and big money transfer players have so they built TransferWise. Currently, TransferWise is trusted by thousands of people all over the world to send over $750 million around the world monthly. 

Make your loves ones extra happy (and your finances too!) this holiday and always and send that money home via TransferWise. Happy holidays to you!

3 Types of Remittance Companies Emerge as the $600 Billion Industry Gets Disrupted

Remittance came into even more focus for the rest of the financial world these past 5 years as more legacy money transfer companies noticed sustained behaviour in money transfer by consumers. One great trigger for this has been the rise of new models and players - fintech companies and concepts bringing innovation and lower costs by using electronic channels to deliver international money transfer. 

Image courtesy www.magnifymoney.com

We will take a quick look at 3 clear types that have evolved in the last 10 years.

Pure Electronic Channel Types

Companies like TransferWise, Xoom, Transferbee, RemitNow, TransferGo fall into this category. 

They deliver money transfer services strictly via digital and mobile channels.

One interesting thing about digital first remittance companies is the customer profile and their habits: 

For instance, according to Xoom, "Customers who use mobile are more valuable. 

Mobile customers send money more frequently and have higher retention rates than their desktop- only counterparts.

Image courtesy Business Insider Intelligence

BitCoin Remittance Types
It was only a matter of time that remittance would become another use for the popular yet unpopular crypto-currency called BitCoin.
 
In Nigeria, a company like BitStake emerged in 2015 testing the waters and offering a flat 1% on remittances done on its platform. However they seemed to have changed strategy and are now BitCoin4Africa. 

A few other options have also sprung up like NairaEx a bitcoin exchange in Nigeria. It will be interesting to see how the education process is developed to achieve significant level of adoption by Nigerians abroad and in Nigeria given that crypto-currencies are new and need to build trust amongst mainstream financial users.

    

If you are curious to know what the current value of a BitCoin is in Nigeria, well according to Google, for today, 1 Bitcoin equals 64511.23 Nigerian Naira:

Innovation Driven Legacy Type (Telecoms and Big Remittance Players)

In different countries, the role of telecoms as a mobile money player has been that of different strokes for different folks. In Kenya, M-Pesa famously opened the flood gates of mobile money as we know it thanks to Safaricom and it began to be used for remittance leading to partnerships with WorldRemit among others were made. Recently however, MoneyGram and Econet Wireless launched a new mobile money platform in Zimbabwe to make it easier for MoneyGram users to receive international money transfers through their mobile devices. 

    

WHO WINS THE BATTLE? 

At Pay2naija Money Blog, we think there will continue to be partnerships and maybe mergers and acquisition as more digital first platforms come onboard. Clearly though, 3 things are key for success in international money transfer: TRUST in the provider; EASE of use; COST of the service. These 3 factors will play a major role in deciding who the winners are.