Latest news with #Zap
Business Insider
01-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Nigeria's central bank slams Paystack with record fine over fintech compliance
Nigeria-based payment processor Paystack has been fined ₦250 million by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), marking its largest known penalty since its founding in 2016. Paystack fined ₦250 million by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Fine follows launch of Paystack's peer-to-peer transfer app, Zap, raising concerns over regulatory compliance Nigerian authorities are cracking down on fintechs for KYC compliance, fraud prevention, and operating licenses This fine follows the launch of Paystack's peer-to-peer transfer app, Zap, which has raised concerns over regulatory compliance. The CBN claims that Zap functions like a wallet, a category reserved for companies with banking or microfinance licenses. While Paystack holds a switching and processing license, allowing it to facilitate transactions between financial institutions, it is not authorized to hold customer funds. CBN inspectors determined that Zap, launched in March 2024, effectively operated as a digital wallet in violation of regulatory guidelines. Although Paystack maintains that Zap was developed in partnership with Titan Trust Bank—a CBN-regulated institution licensed to hold deposits—the central bank held Paystack accountable for the breach. This fine is part of a broader crackdown by Nigerian authorities on fintechs, focusing on know-your-customer (KYC) compliance, fraud prevention, and operating licenses. CBN Intensifies Scrutiny of Fintech Industry The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ramped up its regulatory scrutiny of fintech companies, emphasizing compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, fraud prevention, and licensing requirements. This intensified oversight has resulted in significant penalties, including a ₦250 million fine for Paystack, marking its largest known sanction to date. In an effort to bolster transaction monitoring and ensure stringent KYC adherence, the CBN instructed the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to begin debiting the settlement accounts of banks and fintechs found to have processed fraudulent transactions, effective from January 2025. Furthermore, in April 2024, the CBN directed four major fintech companies—OPay, Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, and PalmPay—to suspend new customer onboarding due to inadequate KYC procedures.
Forbes
27-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 Automation Tools For Startup Founders That Save 10+ Hours A Week
One of the biggest obstacles to early-stage startup growth is the fact that operational and administrative tasks eat up a huge chunk of your time as a startup founder, preventing you to invest in the activities that would elevate your project - product development, sales, etc.. Yet, the lack of reasources usually means you cannot afford to outsource these tasks to other people, which could put you in a cycle that's extremely hard to escape from. One exit out of this bad situation is to automate repetitive tasks as much as possible in order to free up as much time as possible. According to a survey by WorkMarket, 53% of employees believe automation can save them up to two work hours daily, translating to over ten hours per week for startup founders. This article covers five essential automation tools that help streamline operations and improve efficiency. Zapier is a tool that connects different apps and automates workflows without requiring coding skills. It allows users to create "Zaps," which are automated actions triggered by specific events. For example, a founder can set up a Zap to automatically send Slack notifications when a new lead is added to a CRM. This eliminates manual data entry and ensures that key team members stay updated. Another thing Zapier can do is to automate weekly reports by pulling data from multiple sources (financial data from Sheets, sales data from your CRM, etc.). Besides internal communication and task management, Zapier can help you automate some of your marketing activities. It can trigger automated emails, post new blog articles on multiple social media accounts, etc. Scheduling meetings manually can be time-consuming, especially when coordinating across different time zones and multiple team members. Calendly automates the process by allowing users to share a link with available time slots, letting others book meetings without the back-and-forth emails. This tool integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Zoom, automatically generating meeting links and sending reminders. Managing customer relationships manually can slow down sales and marketing efforts. HubSpot automates CRM functions, helping startups track leads, automate email follow-ups, and manage customer interactions in one platform. Startups using HubSpot's email automation features see an average 50% increase in response rates, according to the company's case studies. By automating outreach and lead nurturing, founders can save hours each week while maintaining consistent communication with prospects. This is extremely important for startups with large quantities of leads, especially if the customer lifetime value isn't too high. If you as a sales person waste too much time on each individual lead, this might make your whole business model unsustainable. This makes CRM automation one of the most important steps in a startup's efficiency phase for a large number of projects. Notion is an all-in-one workspace that automates project management, documentation, and team collaboration. It replaces scattered documents and spreadsheets with organized databases and templates. For instance, a founder can automate task tracking by setting up databases that auto-update based on project progress. Moreover, Notion allows for powerful third-party integrations. For example, you can automatically create Notion tasks from new Calendar events. Handling finances manually is prone to errors and takes up valuable time. Xero automates bookkeeping, invoicing, and expense tracking. By integrating with banks and payment platforms, Xero eliminates the need for manual data entry to a large degree, which makes financial management a lot easier for startup founders. Of course, it's worth noting that while those software solutions are pretty standard, they are by no means unique - all of them have competing solutions that have their own pros and cons. The more important takeaway is to actively search for automation solutions for any repetitive task that obstructs your day from creative and strategic work, which is where you add the most value as a founder.
