Although COVID-19 began from China, however, the disease has spread across major countries in the world such as the United State of America, Italy, Spain and other notable countries across the whole continent.
In addition to the list of infected countries, the NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control) just announced a total of twelve COVID-19 cases in Nigeria on the 19th of March. This announcement has further ignited fear among fintech companies and Nigerians, who initially have been advised to take issues of personal hygiene and self-isolation more seriously.
As COVID-19 nears escalation, some financial technology companies are being proactive and are already activating remote work for their employees. Renowned fintech companies such as Paystack, Kuda Bank and Carbon have put plans forward on how they tend to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Paystack, a Nigerian fintech company that helps businesses in Africa get paid by anyone says its employees will begin a ‘work from home’ work model with immediate effect and its office will be locked from customers and visitors. Paystack mentioned its aim is to ensure the safety of the employees and to limit the risk of the virus to customers and visitors.
On a statement released by Emmanuel Quartey, the head of growth for Paystack, he emphasized on how the employees have already started working remotely, with internal tooling and processes optimized for disturbed work without disrupting the ‘Paystack Business’ processes in any way.
To this end, the Paystack customers will still have access:
- To their accounts and transactions will be processed as usual.
- To their customer care line will remain available to all their customers.
- To their email at hello@paystack, their social media channels, and live chat.
Carbon, a digital lending company is however faced with some challenges in targeting 100% remote work. While Carbon is looking to minimize the likelihood of infection for its staff, it will not be able to take call inquiries as their call centers and phone lines will be unavailable for the next few weeks. Customers can only reach via social media and email.
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While the COVID-19 pandemic continues till further notice with fatal consequences, Kuda Bank has also joined the train of ‘work from home’ for some of its staff. To this new effect, Kuda Bank’ customer support will continue to provide support through the in-app chat and Twitter DMs with quick responses between 6:00am and 6:00pm, and slower responses at other times.
Fo Kuda Bank, customers will still have access:
- To their money and transactions will still happen round the clock.
- Debit cards through third party companies will be considerably slow.
- Transfers will be an option for users without a debit card.
While BuyCoins, a cryptocurrency startup that buys and sells Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin in Nigeria had already announced a ‘work from home’ mandate for its employees since Tuesday 17th March. 2020. The memo was announced by Timi Ajiboye, the founder of BuyCoins on his twitter handle, days before the COVID-19 cases increased and was confirmed by the health authorities. In his tweet he emphasized on the need to be proactive in responsibility:
“While the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is still small, out of an abundance of caution, we think it is critical to be proactive in responding and begin to practice isolation and social distancing. I personally believe there are more people infected that have been confirmed (like it is everywhere in the world, even with way more testing than we’ve done here). I think every company that can have people work at home should do so.”
In his plans to activate remote work for his BuyCoins staff, Timi Ajiboye has promised to give a stipend outside the normal salary pay to his employees to stock up on food, toiletries e.t.c and to reimburse internet subscription costs. And also have free lunches delivered to their homes by EdenLife.
In all, major fintech companies are coming up with strategic ways to protect their employees. With this co-operation from fintech companies in Africa, we believe the COVID-19 pandemic will be controlled.
This blogpost is curled from Fintech Africa News
