African Immigrant to Loved Ones

by Winngie

18 December 2019

General

0 comments

People are working overseas, just for sustaining income for their family back home and waiting their savings to keep their family happy. Especially in African countries, just for creating a better life for their families, millions and millions African are working in another country.
Fees for remitting money vary wildly between providers and countries. African migrants, who sent almost $60bn (£38bn) in remittances last year, pay the most, according to the World Bank. On average migrants sending money home to Africa lose 12% to fees. Moving money between African countries can cost much more – sending money to Tanzania from neighboring Kenya or Rwanda, for example, costs an average of 22% (or a $44 cut on $200 transferred).


Many experts would say how it is incredible that in a competitive environment there’s no reason these things should be more than 4%. It is not something justifiable.

According to Ismail Ahmed, founder of World Remit, an online transfer service said that the true cost of sending or receiving remittances in Africa was much higher than figures may suggest. “There are costs associated with going to a branch. In Africa, in many cases banks are in the cities, so people have to travel there, queue up, wait and then collect small amounts of money.”

The widespread utilization of mobile phone in Africa could make it cheaper to transfer money and easier for migrants to get to emergencies at home, said Ahmed. “Particularly in Africa, new technological changes are likely to have the biggest impact. Imagine somebody gets a text message in the middle of the night, saying that mum needs to go to the hospital, and they can send $10 instantly. In the long term, these things will transform money to transfer in Africa.”

Several firms have come up lately to face the dominance of major platforms, such as Western Union, considered to control 18% of the worldwide remittance market with roughly 500,000 outlets in 200 countries.

In 2011, Western Union handled $81bn in remittances roughly $1 in every $5 sent. It made 80% of its revenue from remittances that year, including almost $3.6bn in transaction fees and $1bn in foreign exchange income. In Africa, exclusive deals with several banks saved it to a share of the market above 70% in countries, such as, Mali and Rwanda.

Western Union said its average cost to users was roughly 5%. “Our pricing varies from country to county depending on a number of factors, such as security and local regulatory compliance. On the amount of money being sent,” it said, adding costs was affected by factors, including national laws and the amount being sent. “Western Union has acknowledged the increasing consumer which need to send money from one African country to another. However, in Africa there is a new trend that Winngie is the new one that has been well received and became so common for many immigrants in Africa. Winngie goes in a high demand in Africa and gets a high level attention for many immigrant workers.

Winngie has an easy interface and sustainable client background that many immigrants use this platform as a transfer way to their loved ones back in their country. Winngie is a new trend according to data has been published in a Rwandan local university. It is the fact that Winngie has very cheap, no fee and no cost at all. Calling free as cheap might not sound good, but Winngie has a good way to change all African immigrants’ perspective.

Western Union is losing its grand to Winngie as booking.com whereas Expedia loses its own to Airbnb. In Africa, especially Saharan Africa and East Africa, the business itself is ongoing to Winngie. The platform itself became a phenomenon in Africa.

It changes the system and makes transfer small amount to overseas to love ones easier than ever. Not anymore high costly transfer fees and killing exchange rates are the issue for African immigrants. African immigrants are happy to use Winngie for their well worked hardly earned money.

Reference:
Why do Africans pay the most to send money home?
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jan/30/africans-pay-most-send-money

Read more

Introduction to the Different Types of International Money Transactions

by winngie

3 January 2019

International Money Transfer

0 comments

Most of us know very little about how the financial system works at the meanwhile we are highly dependent on it. When you receive the monthly salary, when you use the bank card to pay for the bill, when you send the money to others, it’s all about the transaction fashion. The user experiences fantastically influence and push the revolution of financial system. It’s hard to categorize but we still have some clues to observe the system into three historical stages: physical institution, digital service, and invisible currency.

  • Traditional Bank Service

There are three major ways to use the traditional bank services.

The first one is wire transfer. You can send the money to more than 150 countries by over 40 types of currencies. Without doubtfully, it’s a safe way to send your money around the world though it’s slower with the various commission fees. Moreover, for the virgin user, he/she has to open the foreign currency account by the assigned bank and activate it. It takes more times for preparation to wire the international funds.

The second way is through Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). SEPA is the European Union payment integration which aims to simplify the wire transfer in the Euro countries. Due to the same currency and the cooperated financial system, this is the cheapest way to send the money between 28 EU member states, 4 countries from European Free Trade Association, and 2 microstates who signed the agreements with SEPA. That is to say, you must have the bank account in these euro-zone countries and also it only accepts Euro.

Thirdly, it’s the checks. Checks are usually applied for bills or payment since the design is friendly to be used. When you want to send the money to someone domestically or internationally, only do you send via post or the bank, and the receiver can easily deposit based the due date of the check. However, it can be slower and more additional service fees come. Both sender and receiver sides may be charged with the commission. The checks deposits into the receiver’s account may also take few work days.

Of course, the bank system is more reliable but its slowness and red-tape progress also make the users being “kidnapped.” The weakness of the traditional bank system is vulnerable when facing the challenges from the digital technology. Time-consuming and high exchange rates push the traditional bank stepping into online service system.

  • Digital Financial Service

Online transaction becomes more popular than before since the senders do not need to go the physical banks and wait for few hours to only make one transaction.  There are also three major ways to send the capital by internet.  The first one is the traditional bank system which starts to use online banking.

The second one is by the third-party agencies, such as, Transferwise, Worldremit, Winngie, and XE. Each similar but different. They function as bank but it is not. The mainly concept is to work without banks and return the transaction right back to the customers.

The third one links together with the online shopping platform with speed payment which later evolves into the convenient payment method. The classical examples are WeChat pay, Alipay, and PayPal. Taking PayPal as example, PayPal is spawned from the simple concept which allows the users to transfer the funding through online to facilitate the e-shopping payment. This smart idea attracts million members to enjoy this encryption software. People use it to link together with eBay or other online shopping website, do donations, and exchange money with others. Same with the traditional bank system, PayPal users both are required to open the accounts under the PayPal system otherwise the other side cannot receive or send the funding. Unlike the bank system, PayPal are free with basic usage, and you don’t need to submit mountains of document to register the new account.  The weakness of PayPal system is highly exposure to be frauds, unfair high transfer fees, and dependent of internet.

The disadvantages of the digital financial fashion are undermined by cybercrime and low-control of financial risk. Many small-scale banks may lack capacity to enhance cybersecurity. Also, when it is easy to facilitate the financial flow, excessive borrowings and debt occur.

  • Digital Currency

Some say digital currency is a Ponzi scheme. Some say cryptocurrency has already died and resurrected over 100 times during past half decade. Whether the world likes or criticizes it, there is no doubt that cryptocurrency has successfully attracted people’s attention. Blockchain decentralized character makes the users transfer digital currency faster and easier. There is no single location, no holiday and no central authority in between. It is peer-to-peer basis. It means that cryptocurrency returns the transferred right back to its users without time boundary and location barriers.

Unreliable emerging ICOs, small new currency, and cybercrime may crowd the market. Due to its consensus-based network, it is hard to have universal rules to supervise digital currency.  Low-trust operation, virtual assets, and zero tolerate to fix the typo after transferred.

You cannot see your money in reality.

From bank-to-bank service to peer-to-peer basis, the financial world seems never tried seeking a better way for exchange. It not only exchanges the money but also exchange trust. It is also never tried to blow another trend. The trend you cannot repeat. The trend it will rock the old system. Winngie Exchange Money App and some others similar ways are trying to overcome these problems to make life easier.

   Winngie Editorial Department

13:04 Wednesday 21 November 2018

Read more