Welcome to Humans of TechAdvance!

Through this feature, we catch up with TechAdvance team members to learn a bit more about our respective work, what excites us about it and being a part of the company. Look out for some great responses to the random quizzing!

Building applications forms the bedrock of our work at TechAdvance. The systems Engineering department is at the forefront of innovation, tests and our products in this regard. Meet Kazeem Noibi- our Lead, Systems Engineer and let’s find out what makes him tick.

Human of the Day: Kazeem Noibi

What is your job title?

I am the Lead, Systems Engineer at TechAdvance. In the Systems Engineering department, we build all the web-based applications at TechAdvance.

When did you start working at TechAdvance?

I started working at TechAdvance early December 2016

What do you love about your job?

I love the ability to freely innovate, collaborate and mentor young developers while delivering world-class high-end products that actually solve real problems.

What is your Favourite quote or mantra, which applies to work?

My favourite quote is: "Use what works for you and don’t condemn what works for others".

Describe the culture at TechAdvance (in your opinion).

TechAdvance is a fantastic work environment where any SERIOUS individual can have a progressive career. As a developer in TechAdvance, the environment allows us to build up interesting portfolios that solve real-world problems. Here, there are no barriers; there is free access to ANYBODY.

When you are not working, what do you love doing?

When I am not working, I am listening to Music (I am a huge fan of Fuji Music (Barrister, Saheed Osupa, Kollington)), I mentor young developers to build careers in technology and I am also active in the religious circle where we do some volunteering in community-driven activities.

Do you remember your first day or week at work here? Give a brief description of your observations.

Coming from a previous work experience as a Remote developer for a foreign company, settling down was not that easy. On my resumption, I was tasked with stabilizing the technology side of a project that was staggering at that time and with my efforts coupled with that of my colleagues, it was easily achieved. We can confidently say that the product is stable right now.

What is your favourite memory or event at TechAdvance so far?

My favourite memory is our code camp last December. We had gone for the Christmas holidays and about 3 days into the holidays, I received a call came from our CTO that we needed to report to work to build a new product. We had to resume in a camp (a very conducive place for that matter), and in 8 days (Yes, Eight Days!) the product was ready. It was a fantastic experience for us, and the memory lingers till date.

Welcome to Humans of TechAdvance!

Through this feature, we catch up with TechAdvance team members to learn a bit more about our respective work, what excites us about it and being a part of the company. Look out for some great responses to the random quizzing!

The compliance and procurement team at TechAdvance exists to ensure that all necessary conditions and purchases that ought to be met concerning the smooth operation of its products; platforms and services are duly sourced, processed and delivered efficiently.

Human of the Day: Eghosa Ewone

Meet Eghosa Ewone, who helps drive this department. He shares views on love for his work, humanitarian activity outside the office and how he makes all parts come together.

What is your job title?

 I am the Lead, Procurement and Regulatory Compliance.

What work does your department do?

The procurement team manages order cycle and closure, supplies and acquisitions of various equipment and materials needed while the compliance team plays the role of ensuring the company is in total conformity with all laws, regulations, certifications, licenses and standards required of its products and services.

What do you love about your job?

Two core reasons. Relationships and its Dynamism. I enjoy working with people across all strata and building relationships. Procurement requires excellent relationship building with everyone from suppliers to sales, marketing and maintenance, facilities to finance & risk to PR to be able to deliver efficiently. Also, saving money is a major aspect required of the job and thus, the ability to avoid cost, reduce it, and help my company achieve profitability is a major propelling factor.

When did you join TechAdvance?

October 2016

What is your favorite quote, which applies to work?

“What you do is what matters, not what you think, or say, or plan” ~ Jason Fried - REWORK. 

Describe the culture at TechAdvance in your opinion

The culture at TA is startup driven - one required for technology firms to continuously reinvent themselves. From having an inspirational leader who wears pyjamas to colleagues who deliver great work & take on tasks without being in a traditional office environment, TA isn't a regular place to work. Passion, values and an amazing work ethic drive its people and despite the challenging issues faced daily, the burning passion and extreme interest to get things done set us apart from the competition.

When you aren’t working, what do you love doing?

When I'm not working, I'm volunteering to end widespread hunger and food waste with @FoodCliqueSupport. I see this as my life's mission. 

Do you remember your first day at TechAdvance? What were your observations? 

My first day at work remains a memorable one. We had begun to spread further into the Northern part of Nigeria & we welcomed our colleagues from that region to a meeting. For me, it was game on from day one so, the week was mostly filled with introductions, learning the ropes, setting expectations and demonstrating the value I was called upon for. 

What is your favourite memory here at TechAdvance?

Birthdays remain a favourite time for me at TA. We get to find time to celebrate with our colleague, putting work and perhaps any grievances aside. 

Do you have any superpowers?

People tend to say I am a master negotiator. I guess this has to be it!

Welcome to Humans of TechAdvance!

Through this feature, we catch up with TechAdvance team members to learn a bit more about our respective work, what excites us about it and being a part of the company. Look out for some great responses to the random quizzing!

Human of the Day: Ada Ikponmwoba

Meet Ada, our Lead, Sales / Business Development for Bus.com.ng - the largest online bus ticket sales provider and software service provider for bus operators powered by TechAdvance. We chat with her to find out a bit more about what she does and what keeps her excited about working here.

What is your job title?

Lead, Sales/ Business Development.

When did you start working at TechAdvance?

March 2016.

What do you love about your job?

I love the fact that we are able to use Technology to solve a major problem with Nigeria’s road transportation sector.

What is your Favourite quote or mantra which applies to work?

My only way of discovering the limit of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

Please describe the culture at TechAdvance (in your opinion)

I haven't known TechAdvance to have a culture, but it will be nice to see that happen in no time.

When you are not working, what do you love doing?

Research, discovering new things

Do you remember your first day or week at work here? Give a brief description of your observations.

Working with TechAdvance has been a great experience as well as seeing the company grow to what it is today if I recall - when I joined TechAdvance, we were just a team of four on the Business Development Team and didn't have an office. So, we had to work from different remote areas.

What is your favourite memory or event at TechAdvance so far?

Begin able to participate in one of the largest Technology events #Techpointbuild to showcase what our value and product are in TechAdvance.

Do you have any super powers?

I am great at going after whatever I want and achieving them.

Welcome to Humans of TechAdvance!

Through this feature, we catch up with TechAdvance team members to learn a bit more about our respective work, what excites us about it and being a part of the company. Look out for some great responses to the random quizzing!

Human of the day: Tosin Animashaun

What is your job title?

I am Team Lead, Integrations at TechAdvance.

What does the Integrations team do? 

We glue software. Basically, we build web services and make systems talk to themselves.

For instance, when you click a button on your phone to complete a transaction, a chain of successive API calls (from system to system) typically occur before the final response returns you. APIs are a way to make disparate software systems interoperable.

When did you start working at TechAdvance?

August 2016.

What do you love about your job?

The sense of fulfilment I get from it, having chosen this path mainly for the passion.

The opportunity -- and I do see it as an "opportunity" -- to be creative; to build something that forms an important part of the daily lives of millions of people. You know, that gratification that comes from knowing that everyday you wake up to go to work, your contributions are significant.

What is your Favourite quote or mantra which applies to work?

I love every line from the Zen of Python, which is a collection of mantras, so to speak, but I'll quote the 12th line, which reads, "In the face of ambiguity, resist the temptation to guess."

Describe the culture at TechAdvance (in your opinion)

On one hand, as a tech company (and rather expectedly), TechAdvance is a space where technology disruption is a daily affair. On the other hand, I see a company trying to disrupt work culture -- in a good way.

The culture is one of the things I like most about this place. First is the air of freedom that fosters genuine creativity. Then, the conducive and friendly atmosphere and the way it all culminates in growth! (In retrospect, I see where I've come from.)

When you are not working, what do you love doing?

I work! Ha ha! More seriously, I have a wide array of interests, so I try to indulge in one of these other activities that pick my fancy, including listening to podcasts, browsing Quora (or contributing), and reading, just to name a few.

On the side, I am also an exco member of the Python Nigeria community. So, community duties.

Do you remember your first week at work here? Please give a brief description of your observations.

Not vividly, but I do recall some of it.

I had come in from a teaching role at my previous place, where I taught programming. You know, teaching, and actually sitting down to get your hands dirty, are not exactly the same; so I had to go through something of a paradigm shift.

My first week happened in a bit of a rush. My job role required me to hit the ground running, so I had to learn so much about the operations of the company pretty quickly. I had a lot of email corresponding to do -- you can tell what that would be like for a programmer. And I had sit through meetings.

I was lucky enough to have the support and mentoring of my team lead at the time, as he did well to show me the ropes.

Overall, it was quite a pretty heightened experience.

Do you have any ‘special powers’?

Uhm... this one is a bit difficult. I don't see myself as having any kind of superpower. Perhaps, I could say it's my high threshold for staying through anything I "decide" to do.

Also, it could be my ability to context switch rather effortlessly. Still, I wouldn't say I'm the best at any of the aforementioned or tag them as "superpowers".

Security and Fraud in the age of Payment Apps - How Much Safer is it now?

Payment card security and fraud is a very interesting topic because there will always be conceptions between the believers and non-believers.

A payment card is either a debit or credit card and both cards can also be referred to as ATM cards as they allow us make cashless payments over the Internet both within and outside our countries

Believers

The believers can be classifieds as millennials and those that have chosen to believe in the online world making the bold step of getting either a debit or credit card from their bank, activating that card for online transactions and successfully completing an online based transaction using their payment card.

Not all millennials are believers because it all comes down to a few questions- Do you trust the platform? Are you willing to test it out and stick to it? Have you had any security issues in the past and decided never to make online purchases?

Non-believers

Non-believers-some of them are our parents and even grandparents. We try to make them see the benefits of cashless payment, online payments, payment cards, payment apps and mobile payments but surely, some are adamant and never yield while the rest may agree with you but never use the platform.

Let’s focus on the non-believers for now.

Why don’t they want to use payment cards, mobile payments, online payments and all those other good stuff? Perhaps, it’s their background or they are simply afraid of the entire process.

They are mostly afraid of losing their money perhaps, to a shady online transaction or an entire bank account hack through your debit or credit card.

How can you get hacked?

1. Misplacing your card.
2. By clicking on a suspicious link on the Internet that pops up out of nowhere.
3. By installing shady software that you don’t know the manufacturer.
4. Sharing your card details over the phone, email or even on social media.
5. By using an unknown payment gateway.
6. By using your card on fake websites without the proper SSL security card protection.

Which brings us to Security – Payment Card Security

Most of the ways you get hacked or your card get hacked is if you are careless yourself. If you stay relatively conscious of your card and how important it is, you won’t have any bad experiences.

Payment cards are your regular ATM cards used to make payment using payment apps - these payment apps fall under mobile payments.

Payment cards are linked to payment apps, which are installed on your smartphone and allows you to have a digital wallet containing multiple cards to be used for online payments.

Additionally, mobile payments are safer because it's more difficult for hackers to get access to your credit card details in a data breach. That's because your actual financial information isn't transferred during the transaction. Instead, a coded version of your credit card details is used to authorize payment.

Payment Apps

Payment apps are used for paying for goods or services from your smartphone and this brings us to mobile payments.

Mobile payment is big and it’s more like a system where you can do a lot of things using your smartphone.

Mobile payments are a variety of payments done using a smartphone and these payments can be classified into the following;

• Everyday transactions like buying recharge cards to make calls, subscribing to your favourite Internet data plan and so on.
• Sending money to family, friends or maybe even co-workers.
• Bill payments like electricity, water bills.
• Making payments on online stores as well as physical stores.
• Point of Sale (POS) payments in local stores, restaurants, bars etc.

So, mobile payments make all these possible for anyone to do as long you have an ATM card.

Now, Why do you need Payment Apps?

Payment apps bring all the payment systems into one platform, which is an app, and with this app installed on your smartphone, you can make mobile payments easily and securely.

Payment Apps in Nigeria

The most popular payment apps in Nigeria are owned by banks-while there are other owned by private companies, they are not as widely used as bank-owned payment applications.

Fintech Trends to Look Out For in the Near Future

We are heading towards game-changing technologies as the future is centred around digitalization, which will have a tremendous effect on both security and transparency.

People are getting more comfortable with managing their money and business online. Most people have mobile banking apps while others have at least one app that does payments.

From taxes to finance, you can get whatever you want anytime you want thanks to mobile and cloud computing.

Fintech trends to look out for in the near future

The following are the fintech trends to look out for in the near future;

1. Blockchain technology
2. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Chatbots
3. Increased mobile transactions
4. Bank & Fintech companies collaborations
5. An increase in digital wallets usage
6. More people going cashless

1. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology is an incorruptible digital ledger where users store valuables documents, investments, financial transactions etc. for total safety.

Fintech companies using Blockchain will benefit in these ways:

• 100% security: Blockchain can never be hacked. To hack blockchain, you would need to have the electric power equivalent to about 2.26 million American homes because you won’t be hacking one but thousands of linked networks.
• Transparency: Blockchain allows banks to create digital ledgers that record transactions in real time with accessibility to everyone within the community boosting the overall efficiency of transactions because banks can now easily know where money is coming from and where it’s going.
• Improved Customer Experience: The entire process is transparent and visible to everyone including stakeholders/customers.
• Increased lending: Bank Settlements can take two or three days. Blockchain compresses the steps into one step that can be done within a few seconds or minutes
• Blockchain cuts costs all around: When it comes to P2P, blockchain cuts out costs of the standard marketplace by 95 per cent. There are no chargebacks and refunds, no postal and shipping losses, no subscription charges, seller fees, referral fees etc.
• Blockchain has the biggest impact in the finance world: “Blockchain-based securities trading will reduce costs, minimize complexity, and increase the speed of trading and settlement processes. Blockchain-based P2P and SME lending platforms will help financial institutions scale easier and more efficiently. Cross-border payments and mobile payments will become cheaper and easier.”

2. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Chatbots

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computerized algorithms that replicate the processes of human cognition.

Machine learning (ML) gathers all that information and kicks off predictions.

Chatbots are computer programs or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.

Some Nigerian brands, companies and start-ups are already using chatbots to improve their customer experience and to sell their products or services. Here are some of the chatbots we have in the financial sector;

• The United Bank for Africa (UBA) recently launched UBA Leo, an AI-powered Facebook Messenger bot, to allow users to perform banking transactions.
• Diamond Bank launched ADA, Artificially  Intelligent (AI) Chatbot, leveraging pioneering technology to reach more customers with an enhanced service in Nigeria.
• GTBank is giving customers access to customer service, airtime purchase and Bank 737 shortcodes using Facebook Messenger.
• Kiakia is using Mr. K, a virtual assistant, to give an interactive user experience in accessing loans. Mr. K also assists users in resolving a couple of issues on the platform — taking away the need of putting a call through for every complaint.
• NairaBot gives the prevailing foreign exchange rates at any given time. You just add a command and it responds according to your request in seconds.
• With Kudi, you can purchase mobile airtime, transfer money and pay for TV bills via chat using Messenger, Skype, Telegram or a web browser.
• NebulaPay allows you to pay bills and transfer funds from the Facebook messenger.

In the coming years, more financial companies will use Machine Learning algorithms to gain a competitive edge in the following ways:

• To detect fraudulent activities and vulnerable spots in their software
• To automate financial reporting
• To minimize processing time and human error
• To execute Analytics/ A/B testing.
• The lines between AI and ML will blur, with companies combining both to offer predictive advice to clients on how they should, for instance, manage their finances.

3. Increased Mobile Transactions

Sending and receiving money has become easier than ever. All you need is a smartphone, and individuals can receive their funds anywhere in the world instantly with mobile banking apps, Payment platforms apps.

More recently, Facebook paired with PayPal to help people outside the U.S. send and receive small amounts of money.

Another trend in the mobile sphere is using smartphones to make payments at stores instead of a debit or credit card. A survey was conducted by Business Insider and it was discovered that “71 per cent of millennials say it’s very important to have a banking app and 60 per cent say it’s very important to have an app to make payments.”

4. Bank & Fintech companies collaborations

We would inevitably see both bank and fintech companies working together.

Banks do not look at fintech companies as disruptors anymore. Today, they are more like partners that pair up to take on the challenges of a new digital. This integration combines the strengths of both – the administration of fintech with the strength and reach of traditional banking.

5. An increase in Digital Wallets Usage

Every bank in Nigeria has a digital wallet for their customers who have granted consumers with a quick, easy and portable way to shop and spend. 

In the near future, we will likely see the development of digital wallets that will also make an impact on the international payments scene, allowing consumers to buy, use and reconvert foreign currency.

More blockchain wallets apps will be created allowing consumers to instantly transfer and exchange cryptocurrencies while remaining incognito.

6. More people would go Cashless

Game-changing digitalization technologies being introduced means the reduction in paper, cash and for the future, the less paper the better.

More people are most likely going to sign up for digitalization and finally go cashless because they can finally see the benefits of going cashless.

Going cashless is certainly the hype now and with blockchain technology, you can fully go cashless or paperless with no fear.