A university professor in Toronto, Canada signs in to a web application on his laptop, to transfer 300 CAD to his Aunt in Nigeria. A few minutes later, in Nsukka — a town in South-East Nigeria, Aunty Sharon receives the naira equivalent directly in her naira bank account.
Kaoshi makes international money transfers this easy!
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What is Kaoshi?
Kaoshi (pronounced: kay-oh-shee) is building a marketplace to connect Africans at home and abroad, to the financial services that enable them to meet their (financial) obligations, affordably and conveniently.
Starting with the Nigeria-Diaspora market, we launched a digital peer-to-peer (P2P) platform that enables our users to swap their currencies in a safe and secure manner.
By leveraging open banking APIs, we enable direct currency swaps between — (a) users in the diaspora who need naira and have foreign currency to exchange it for, with (b) their peers in Nigeria looking to swap their naira for these foreign currencies.
How does it work?
Let’s look at an example of how a peer-to-peer swap works on the platform, with two users – Obi and Dami.
Obi lives in the US and needs to send money to his mum in Nigeria, but he wants her to receive it in naira. Whilst Dami lives in Nigeria and wants to exchange her naira for (inflow) US dollars into her local domiciliary account.
There are two types of users on Kaoshi — ‘Matchers’ and ‘Posters’.
A ‘Matcher’, in this case — Obi, is someone who wants to send naira to Nigeria from abroad. Whilst a ‘Poster’, someone like Dami, is someone in Nigeria who wants to exchange their naira for foreign exchange (FX), into their local domiciliary account or a foreign bank account.
Using Kaoshi’s web application, Dami carries out a currency swap by posting an offer requesting for the dollar amount she wants (in exchange for her naira)— set at her preferred exchange rate. Her offer request is then broadcast across the platform for all Kaoshi users to see.
Note: A fund-hold is placed on Dami’s naira account by her bank for the naira amount she wants to exchange before her offer is published on the platform
Obi, who is also on Kaoshi, sees Dami’s request whilst going through the different posted offers from different users in Nigeria. He likes Dami’s offer and decides to match it because it gives him the most naira for his dollars.
Obi is then prompted to make the payment into Dami’s domiciliary account via a licensed international money transfer operator (IMTO). Once Kaoshi has verified this payment, the fund hold on Dami’s naira account is released, and the naira equivalent is automatically transferred into Obi’s mum’s naira account, in real-time.
That’s it!
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- Obi is relieved his mum will receive her money safely and conveniently.
- Obi’s mum is pleased she can avoid both the stress of picking up USD cash and the hassle of looking for currency exchangers to convert it to naira.
- And Dami is delighted, she can access dollars whenever she needs it.
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How does Kaoshi secure the currency swaps?
Our open banking APIs validate transactions in real-time, thereby securing all currency swaps. We also work with licensed partners to ensure your money is always safe and secure.*
How do I trust the other person at the end of a transaction?
Our users don’t need to trust the person they swap their currencies with, as they have no control of the transfer itself. This is because we oversee all transfers from end to end.
We are very focused on enabling secure and convenient transfers, but making transfers truly affordable is something we consider our advantage. By removing the middleman, our users only get great rates and pay low fees on every single transaction they make on the Kaoshi platform.
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What else can I do on Kaoshi?
If you are in the diaspora:
- You can send naira to Nigeria from over 40 countries including the US, UK, Canada, the EU and several countries in Asia – directly into your beneficiary’s naira account.
If you are in Nigeria, you can:
- Send money to 14 countries including the US, UK, Canada, and Germany – from Nigeria.
- Request money or payment from Nigeria – from family, friends or clients in over 40 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, the EU and several countries in Asia.
- Exchange your naira (from your naira account) for inflow US dollars directly into your domiciliary account at great rates you also get to set.**
*We are registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the United States.
**For our users exchanging their naira for inflow US dollars, your dollar transfers to your Nigerian domiciliary account, are completed via a licensed international money transfer operator (IMTO) in compliance with existing international remittance regulations.
Check us out at www.kaoshinetwork.com and sign up — it only takes 6 minutes.
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