Denis Opudo
The known money transfers agencies like the Western Union and MoneyGram have been regarded as costly platforms to be used. It has been observed that for each $200 money sent the platforms charges a fee of $20. One can imagine the cost those who are forced to transfer money to their relatives or friends back at home go through. More than $600 billion cash was transferred home by around 250 million migrants globally in 2016 alone. This is according to the migration and remittance data from the World Bank. Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, and India were the main recipient regions with a transfer of $39 billion, $20 billion and $69 billion respectively.
With minimum or no other alternative, the senders had no choice but to depend on the available transfer platforms which made them pay the high transaction fees. Fortunately, a new transfer platform that uses blockchain technology joined the market to make things much easier and pocket-friendly. SureRemit came into the market with preferably what was missing. The company which was founded in Mauritius and currently located in Nigeria has introduced crypto token that allows immigrants a safe, affordable and quick way of sending money back at home.
The remittance tokens were available for the first time in a pre-sale that will be activated until the public ICO is opened in the early weeks of January 2018. SureRemit which is collaborated with Stellar and operated with blockchain technology is not the first company to prefer a more suitable cryptocurrency apart from Ethereum. Ethereum is known to be undergoing scaling problems currently, coinciding with the release of the popular Cryptokitties application. Stellar is known to be quicker, more pocket-friendly, and more reliable than Ethereum. This might remain the fact until Ethereum developers upgrade their technology systems. Stellar has recently collaborated also with Bext360, Klickex, IBM, and SatoshiPay.
The only difference and advantage that SureRemit is enjoying over the available cryptocurrency is the fact that its tokens cannot be redeemed for cash. The tokens operate basically on bill payments, online consumer goods, student tuition, and can be only be used at vendors who allow the usage of cryptocurrency tokens. Jumia is one of the main known SureRemit’s partners. Jumia is known to be Nigeria’s number one online shopping platform offering a variety of commodities from electronics to shoes. The SureRemit platform doesn’t charge transaction fees to its customers. Instead, the costs are catered for by the retail partners who redeem tokens for cash without the percentage commission which is paid to SureRemit.
According to Samuel-Biyi, co-founder, merchants are more than happy to pay the transaction fees as they see it as a small price to pay in exchange for a large new client base. Retailers more easily afford fees than clients, as the majority of senders survive in low-income brackets and cannot afford to send their whole salaries back home. SureRemit is, therefore, doing a great global community service through their approach to helping those who need it most. SureRemit’s tokens are not attractive to cyber-criminals and money launderers due to their characteristic of not being exchanged for cash. This affords it a reduced risk when compared to other cryptocurrencies and other forms of blockchain technology currently available.
