Carbon establish USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) service to boost access to finances for its customers. Giving customers the ability to do transactions seamlessly without any hassle has always been the goal of any financial institution, this is what led Carbon, a Pan-African digital financial services company in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos to launch their new product.
The introduction of this service to its platform will make it easier for individuals who have little or no access to smartphones or the internet to access financial services they might need which Carbon offers. This new service will enable existing customers of the financial institution to have access to loans and other payment solutions via USSD without having internet data, before this launch, carbon’s financial services were only available to smartphone users via Android and iOS apps.
Using the USSD code *1303#, customers (on MTN and 9mobile) will be able to make transactions easily and have access to financial services without the presence of internet connectivity. This act will encourage financial inclusion among customers, carbon is also rolling out simplified transaction processes for the new USSD feature.
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The USSD feature continues to enable people to have access to a valuable channel for delivering financial services across Africa despite it not being popular in many parts of the world. Although mobile phone penetration continues to be on the rise in the continent which provides people a platform for fintech innovation, many people do not have access to it to benefit from some financial services rolled out financial institutions, this may be due to some cases like: high cost of data and other factors.
This USSD channel by Carbon will strengthen their market reach thereby allowing it to carry out innovative financial services to a wider range of consumers making it easy for them to access funds easier and quicker whenever they need it.
CEO and co-founder of Chijioke Dozie in a statement said,
“One of the biggest selling points of USSD is that it works with or without the internet, which is reassuring in the African context where internet data is expensive and inconsistent. As fintech continues to develop across Africa, and ingrains itself into people’s everyday lives, it is important to invest and innovate across the ecosystem, ensuring that individuals are not excluded from the benefits of financial inclusion.”
Carbon’s new feature will allow existing customers do airtime recharge and funds transfer. Services like bill payments, loans and on boarding of new customers via USSD will be added to the platform very soon.
