A medical college dropout has developed a smartphone application that provides financial access to the unbanked, under-banked and Millennial users.
The application, Tez Financial Services, aims at accelerating financial inclusion by aggregating credit, savings, insurance, and investments into a single platform by analyzing smartphone data for customer acquisition and credit underwriting, reports said.
Naureen Hyat had always wanted to be a doctor to help and treat the poor and needy. Although she did join a medical college, she had to drop out as it was far from home. But when she saw that people needed more financial services to assist them in managing their lives and building better futures, she had found another way to help.
Moved by the sacrifices and contributions of her ancestors to humanity, and with the support of her family, Naureen embarked upon a journey of philanthropy and social development at an early stage.
Naureen having a degree in finance and a member of the CFA community is well versed in the intricacies of the financial world.
“Despite having 43 banks, only 23 per cent have access to formal financial services in Pakistan. Aimed at the underbanked, Tez Financial has the potential to include 80 million users into the financial mainstream by 2020 and bring in currency circulation worth $33 million into former channels and thus contribute to poverty reduction and better causes of health, education and gender equality,” Naureen said.
The final app is expected to hit the market by the end of the year with all its verticals, including those for credit, savings, investments and insurance, and Naureen and her team are currently busy on the pilot project.
“Tez Financial will be first launched on the Android platform; the desktop version will come in later,” Naureen explained.
Naureen said the nano-credit product in the app provides short tenure credit ranging from one to four weeks for anything from $50 to $100. The savings product offers Tez Committee, is a marketplace of funds where people can pool their funds and win the pool every month, based on a bidding process.
The insurance coverages are tailored based on members’ smartphone data.
“We are in the process of raising funds and should finalise deals with potential investors in the coming months. SDG Challenge was a good opportunity to present ourselves to potential investors. Some Shariah-compliant funds have also shown interest,” Naureen said.
Naureen said, “The smartphone user base is 40 million currently and is expected to double by 2020, according to GSMA estimates. Our market will primarily be the smartphone user base, which is currently 40 million, going on to 80 million in two years. Broadband proliferation is happening for real and financial inclusion is no longer a pipedream.”