What is FinTech? My African Millennial Use Cases…
I’m a recent graduate making a transition into a professional career… I swear there wasn’t a Fin-tech Fundamentals course…. anywhere…
So learn with me…
I basically left varsity without practical money management skills. Yes! consumerism tendencies could not be better served into a wholistic human definition such as myself. However, I loved and did intern jobs around financial services, and also did not learn. Jokes on me, right!!
Now, as a working girl, that does more things on her own; more than I thought I had to. How my time relates to money, the idea of costing my time; where to live, who and what to spend my time and money on, how to keep costs low, how to generate income outside of a salary, deciding when it is alright to give money and when is it not. These are all skills and questions I was warned about, when I was told about growing up. Posed to me by my peers who made money management seem so daunting.
Through my years, I have learnt this one true fact.
money touches people differently…
We tend to assume that we generally handle things in a similar way. However, for me, the sooner I have information, the sooner I make a plan, the sooner I can react and do my best. It’s MY personality trait and not everyone else’s; queue in the patent protection as a joke.
With that said, the economy I find myself being a tax resident in, has a lot more transparency and openness. That makes everything feel too good to be true to be honest. Which is something I am not used to; the eagerness to help and kindness of the people in the financial services I utilise is unbelievable from my past experiences.
Financial Technology, as a definition for me, shifts the responsibility of the bank to myself. It becomes my responsibility to regulate, administer and monitor my transactions and the provision of tools on the banking platform that assist with everything, honestly, could not be more welcomed by me. I have to determine what decisions feel good about my money. As a result, Fintech has made me actively research, learn and be enthusiastic about money in a way I wasn’t before.
I relocated and suddenly the inefficiency I saw with my past banking experiences from my continent, were now solely handled by me and how I interact with an application.
I take on so much responsibility for my money now, and they, the people on the other side of the application, just give me the framework, rules, support and transparency for me to make the decisions, in a time frame that I want. Impulsively, calmly, randomly or strategically…
It’s a new form of independence and the need to shed light on it for others who money is still a mystified entity, are my target audience and the people I hope to help on my platform.
Fintech is just the integration of Information and Technology principles in different Financial services that have altered the way these services are provided. They span from all sorts of relevant topics, from political, to geographical hubs, to our social interations during a pandemic.
I mean from the access of services like transport, catering, leasing, renting, buying groceries, hiring, changing careers; all these changes on how and who can provide them have seriously burnt all the red tape to ashes.
These innovations have brought us from the limited phrase below:
Monopoly of financial options on the menus are…
To one more inviting and appetising for more people to engage with:
How can we help you pick the kind of options for finance you would like your money to go towards??
You have some insights, questions or critiques on the matter? Leave a comment or get in touch…
Instagram: @africanmillennialconcepts
Email: africanmillennialconcepts@gmail.com
