We’ll take advantage of fintech ecosystem — Hubtel CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of Hubtel, an e-commerce platform, Alex Bram, has stated that the company will not relent in its efforts to develop new products and services as part of efforts in addressing the unemployment situation in the country.
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He noted that although the company had experienced a significant increase in staff numbers, from 60 employees at the time of the rebranding in 2017 to a robust team of over 270 employees across eight cities in the country, it was not satisfied with the numbers.
Addressing journalists in Accra ahead of its 18th milestone celebration, Mr Bram indicated every department had grown by more than 100 per cent in the past six years.
In her recent visit to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged Ghana to scale up investment in the flourishing fintec industry to take advantage of the $ 4 trillion worth of global online trade.
She said the country was performing well by providing some digital trade and professional services in businesses outsourcing, with many women involved in the trade and urged that more efforts be put in to make major inroads in the sector
Mr Bram noted that it was to take advantage of this growing industry that his company received a full licence to operate as an Enhanced Payment Services Provider in 2022 and by the end of that year, it had become the country's largest fintech company in terms of transaction turnover and revenue.
He attributed the extraordinary growth to the dedication and hard work of the team at Hubtel who remained the backbone of the company, driving its success and ensuring that goals and objectives were met.
App
Mr Bram said before the launch of the Hubtel App in 2012, the company launched MPower Payments, a complete end-to-end online and mobile payment transactions solution that enabled consumers and merchants to send, spend and receive payments.
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He added that the “MPower introduced the MPower Mobile Point of Sale application which allowed businesses to accept various forms of cashless payments.
However, it did not achieve the desired level of success.
“Hubtel faced similar challenges when it first launched the Hubtel app in 2017.
The goal was to connect customers and businesses through the app and enhance and make the commercial experience more convenient and simpler,” he added.
Mr Bram said the goal was not achieved during its initial launch.
Post launch, the Hubtel app faced numerous hiccups, system failures, and product defects. These issues ultimately led to a less than lukewarm response from the general public.
“Convinced they were on the cusp of something special, the Hubtel team persevered and launched a new drive to rebuild the Hubtel app and its accompanying platform.
Within five months, the company relaunched a fully functional and refreshed product,” it said.
Leaders
Acording to Mr Bram, backed by innovatively discerning leaders, a focused management team and a young and tireless workforce, things began, once again, to look up for Hubtel and in 2019, Hubtel received approval from the Bank of Ghana to operate as a Payment Services Provider (Enhanced).
“By 2021, stressing that the company was processing nearly 8.3 per cent of all successful mobile money payments in Ghana, according to data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Interbank Payment & Settlement Systems”.
“At the beginning of 2023, the company celebrated a significant milestone of over 500,000 app downloads on the Google Playstore alone,” Mr Bram noted.
From its inception in 2005 as SMSGH, the CEO said, the company had undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from being the primary SMS solution-based messaging business to a fully licensed payment and digital transformation services provider.
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“Upon reflection, a lot has been achieved over the past 18 years.
However, it is the company's ability to embrace and overcome failure that has been crucial to its growth and success,” he said.
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In 2005, two bright and ambitious undergraduates from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Alex Bram and Ernest Apenteng, set out to revolutionise how businesses connect with their customers through SMS messaging.