Kuda Bank

A Feature Request Case Study

This is a brief case study of a ‘Stash Savings’ feature requested by me from Kuda Bank. I bank with kuda but Kuda doesn’t make it possible for me with an unstable and irregular income to save as I earn.

Some would say why bother to request for this feature when you could use other services like Cowrywise and Piggyvest? Thing is, I’m not comfortable with the idea of keeping money in different places on the internet.

About Kuda Bank

Kuda is a digital-only retail bank that provides financial services to Nigerians. Mostly millennials. It was founded in 2018 with a goal to offer banking services without ridiculous charges like card maintenance fees, SMS alert charge, stamp duty and other transfers fees.

Via it’s mobile and web apps, Kuda allows its customers to conveniently send money, Buy airtime/data, pay bills, access loans and earn interest when they save.

Kuda raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding in 2019 and $10 million in seed funding in November 2020. Also, they’re branch-less, deposits are made via bank transfers, deposit via a POS agent or via Access Bank – it’s partner bank.

One peculiar Kuda’s preposition is the flexibility to save money and actually earn at least 10% interest per annum compared to traditional banks where charges and withholding tax eat away from interest accrued through savings. But Kuda’s saving options are limited in a way: each is targeted at different kinds of earners but earners with irregular and unstable income just as me are largely excluded.

Here are the savings option currently available on Kuda.

Flexible Savings

This is targeted at individuals who wants to save daily, weekly or monthly towards a goal. This is perfect for individuals who earn salaries or earn consistently within the available saving frequency of kuda automatically deducted from your balance daily, weekly, or monthly.

Dear Kuda, what happens if i don’t have the amount i set to be saved daily or weekly in my account?

Fixed Savings

Here, Kuda allows you to save and lockout a lump sum of money and the longer it stays locked, the bigger the interest.

Spend + Save

When you spend money, Kuda deducts an amount from your account and save.

The Challenge

First off, the Fixed Savings option, you can save a lump sum but you can’t top-up this savings and would have to always create a new saving goal for every time you want to save a huge amount.

For the Flexible option, you’re automatically debited when due, this helps you improve your saving habits but since my income is irregular, i might not want to save that moment. And I’d have to wait daily, weekly, or monthly before I’d be able to save.

Conversely, Kuda allows you to withdraw anytime irrespective of your savings option but you’re likely to lose your accrued interest.

A Stash Saving Feature Request

Before banks became a thing, people saved money in Piggy Banks or in the Nigerian context; Kolo box. These boxes allowed people to lock away money for a particular time and encouraged saving of any amount down to the least coin. People were able to save whatever and whenever.

I work as a freelancer meaning work can come at any time or I could be without work for weeks. This translate to me having an irregular income. This is sometimes the case for other freelancers. I’m suggesting Kuda makes a similar saving feature as the kolo box where users save anything, anytime towards a goal and earn interest.

This is effective when you have some money at hand and you’re able to save immediately and not wait till after 24 hours, 7 days or 31 days to be able to save your own money(reads the Flexible Savings option).

While banking with Kuda, i never captured the need of the Spend + Save option. If i wanted to save I’d just save and if i want to spend, let me spend in peace.

Having the ability to save anytime your money comes makes planning and budgeting easy.