Stay Ahead Financially With Bethniel Finance (Part I): The Evolution of African Observations
Sept. 3, 2021, 4:31 p.m.
Introduction
We launched the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the Android version of African Observations in May 2021 while that of IOS went live in July 2021 having worked on the app for close to a year with limited resources and some hurdles that came our way.
Being able to launch the MVP of the app meant a lot to us at Bethniel Fintech because we put so much work into the app as we believed there was a real need for a platform that provides Ghanaians with financial information as well as an opportunity to improve financial literacy.
What We Sought To Do
Before we set out to do this, we had a goal of helping people make better and informed financial decisions. Through the app, users were and are still able to read insightful financial news and blog articles, listen to relevant podcast episodes, access real-time financial markets data (rates, mutual funds, fixed income, stocks, forex), and engage an expert to help with any related financial question.
We have complemented the above features with monthly webinars where we bring experts to educate and share insights on diverse financial topics.
Some of our webinars have focused on how to draw a financial plan, understanding financial markets, and how to invest in them, among others.
All of this has greatly contributed to our goal of helping people make better and informed financial decisions. This is proved by the traction we have chalked so far which we will speak about in the next paragraph.
The Traction Gained So Far
Having launched MVPs for Android and IOS in May and July respectively, we are almost hitting 300 Total Users (Installs) across Android and IOS. Between June and August, we have at least 100 Monthly Active Users.
For us, this is very much encouraging and means as we iterate and build on our MVP to become a more solid product, we will gain more traction.
It is also good to put into context that we haven’t been so aggressive with our marketing. We are at a stage of learning more from our initial users as we journey gradually towards aggressive marketing.
We believe very much in a vibrant and engaging community and so we are passionate about building and sustaining one.
A community is built around people, platforms, and events. On the front of the platform, we are very active on social media.
We currently have 100+ followers on LinkedIn and Instagram, 50+ YouTube subscribers, and almost 100 followers on Facebook and Twitter as of the end of August.
On the front of events and people, we have mainly gone virtual through webinars especially as the world fights against COVID; we have had a total of 8 community webinars with a little over 800 total registrants across all webinars.
In terms of webinar attendance, we have had a total of 300 people attending all our webinars. For us, this is more of us sowing seeds towards a future where a chunk of our community members (social media followers & webinar participants) are converted to become users of the app.
We believe it is more of us creating awareness now for the future. Moreover, we have started building communities on University campuses, starting with the University of Ghana (looking forward to launching in September).
Why Are We Rebranding from African Observations to Bethniel Finance
We have come to a place where we believe we need to make slight changes to the product which includes the name as well as some features. This has been shaped by engagements we have had with our users through surveys, as well as feedback and engagement on the app.
We started by wanting to help people make better and informed financial decisions. We are still passionate about that and we want to approach it differently as well as widen the solution we are seeking to offer.
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We want to help people stay ahead financially by offering the most seamless way of improving financial literacy, managing personal finances, and accessing financial services.
We started off by focusing on just financial literacy but we want to be that app you go to when you think anything personal finance. We want to be that one-stop place where your financial literacy is enhanced with which you can better manage your finances and access financial services like planning, investments, insurance, and advice.
We are not there yet and we know it will take time but we believe we can build a product with you that keeps you ahead financially. We do not think the name African Observations cuts it for us with this vision.
Essentially, we have decided to go with the “Bethniel”, which is the name of the company (Bethniel Financial Technology), and “Finance”, which best captures what we are setting out to do: helping you stay ahead financially.
From September, African Observations will now be known as Bethniel Finance. This will reflect across all our socials as well as the app. If you already have the African Observations app, all you need to do is update it.
In case you don’t, you only have to search for Bethniel Finance on the Google Playstore or App Store and download it. We will send the links to download the app to all emails in our database as well as on our socials.
Guess what!!!! There are some exciting features we will be releasing with the new name, Bethniel Finance.
tag: finance, press release, African Observations, Fintech,