BY Desmond Okon
First Marina Trust (FMT) Limited has launched a savings and investment product, FMT Space, to promote participation in the money market.
Unveiled on Tuesday in Lagos, the product is the company’s first foray into the fintech ecosystem as it seeks a slice of a market projected to reach $543.3 million this year.
It would also see FMT Limited compete with the over 200 fintech companies already existing in Nigeria — including the central bank’s eNaira.
The company said the FMT Space app allows customers to invest in money markets and commercial papers.
It also provides escrow services to clients and offers loans with a 5 percent interest rate.
An escrow relationship is a contractual arrangement in which a third party receives and disburses money, property, documents or items for the primary transacting parties.
“We are the only app in Nigeria that has that kind of arrangement, bringing trust to a buyer-seller relationship,” Anthony Onyeoghane, chief risk officer at FMT said.
Onyeoghane said the company aims to spread its reach to the younger generation with the app, and “allow every Nigerian company to invest in a safe, secure and profitable manner”.
Addressing concerns that may stem from security breaches and scams, Ehiosu Oviawe, managing director, FMT, said the app is safe for transactions.
Oviawe said the app was built with the latest fintech security protocols like the one-time password (OTP) and connected with bank verification number (BVN) and others.
With such systems in place, the managing director said clients’ funds and data are safe.
“Nobody can do anything with your BVN. It is a misconception to think that because you give out your BVN somebody can defraud you. Remember that when you registered your BVN, you registered with a particular number. If you still have that number, then your BVN is safe,” he said.
“In fact, if you don’t have that number again, your BVN cannot work on this app. Because when you put in your BVN, it’s going to send an OTP to that number. And if you don’t get your OTP, you can’t move to the next stage. And we have a series of points where OTPs will be sent to you. So those are security checks that we have put in place.”
“The BVN is not what we created, is a government regulation to know if you are who you say you are, and that is what separates us. If a terrorist decides to download my app, they have a BVN, remember in your BVN you have your biometrics. So, you are not hiding anymore.
“And number two, because we are regulated, we also send reports to the various compliance institutions, the EFCC… we have different classes of reports that we send to the various complaints institution with regards to suspicious transactions because we are opening, you’re going to tell us what you do, your kind of business, what you earn per annum.”
On his part, Salamatu Aderinokun, chairman, FMT Limited, said the changing financial landscape is providing immense possibilities for economic development.
Aderinokun said Nigeria, with an estimated 60 percent youth population, “it is now clear that any business that is not fintech-enabled to reach out to its customers will not own the future”.
“We at FMT Group, through our flagship company, the First Marina Trust Limited, having managed our customers directly – deploying relationship management tools to onboard and manage them uniquely with tailored-made solutions under dedicated relationship managers, we now need to raise the bar higher with the creation of FMTSpace,” Aderinokun said.
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