Mobile Bank Transfer App

Target Audience

Over 400.000 Nigerians study, work, and live in the United States and frequently send money to friends and relatives abroad. Each time they want to make a money transfer, they have to take into consideration a lack of trust in existing solutions, long waiting times, and expensive transaction fees. The client’s request was to develop a money transfer solution that would enable instant transactions, affordably and securely. The residents of the following 8 U.S. states will be able to use the solution to send money to Nigeria: Texas, California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, and Illinois. Moreover, in the future, the range of states will grow to match user demand.  

Solution Overview

Following the results of the discovery phase and the client’s requirements, Itexus formed a dedicated development team to perform the following workflow:

• Implementation of the following functionalities:
  • – Instant money transfers from any American bank card to any Nigerian bank account
  • – Bill payments in Nigeria (utilities, phone bills, etc.)
  • – Connection of several U.S. bank cards to one account
  • – Multilingual interface (English, Spanish, and French)
• Integration of two payment service providers (US-based and Nigeria-based)
• Integration of a robust KYC verification system
• Design and implementation of a promo code system to attract more users and run promotional campaigns

Project Challenges

• Finding and negotiating with American and Nigerian payment providers to find the best match for the client.
• Finding and negotiating with KYC verification systems to find one that would validate ID cards instantly.
• Reintegrating new payment gateways into the project under very tight deadlines, resulting from the uncertainty of the Nigerian political and economical climate. As a result, the client requested an integration of a second provider to serve as backup. The highly skilled Itexus team demonstrated professionalism and flexibility, and managed to complete the task on time.

Development Process

The Itexus team rose to the the challenge of the project and dedicated itself to staying within the budget and meeting the client’s deadlines. We started with the discovery phase and performed a deep analysis of existing money transfer solutions. After negotiating with the client and taking their business goals into consideration, detailed project documentation was prepared. This included software requirements specifications, UI mockups, software architecture details, recommended technology stack as well as third-party implementations and integrations to make the product resilient, scalable, and secure. The client appreciated Itexus’ input during the discovery page and ordered the software development.

We were able to provide extensive assistance with the development of the Android and iOS mobile apps, as well as the web-based admin panel.

The development process was organized according to the Agile model within the Scrum framework. Data from the software requirements specification document was transformed into user stories. Based on the client’s priorities and the team’s recommendations, the building process was divided into several iterations. Each iteration began with a team meeting where business analysts presented user stories, followed by a two-week sprint and a subsequent session to demonstrate the newest features and collect feedback. In addition to Agile flexibility, the project manager kept track of the budget and scope, reported costs on a weekly basis, and alerted the client if any changes to the original scope and requirements were made.

Communication channels between the development team and the client were established via Zoom and email. Git was used as a code repository. The project manager and the business analyst worked closely with the stakeholder to focus on important features and iterations.

Results and Future Plans

The project has been under development for around 7 months. The apps (Android and iOS) are currently in their beta versions and will be ready soon. We have managed to create a secure mobile app-to-bank transfer solution that significantly decreases transaction fees and enables instant operations.

Currently, the only target country is Nigeria, but the client plans to enable money transfers to other countries in Africa in the future. The Itexus team continues to work on the project, progressively developing and implementing new features according to the client’s expectations and requests. Furthermore, the app landing page has been created and is being actively tested to provide conversions, app downloads, and new user engagement.