LITE version of the app now providing people in Ghana the capability to make new connections in contrast to the accounts of the past — and with new services being developed for the platform, this is just the start

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The Humaniq ‘LITE’ version of the app, launched on Android, uniquely combines popular data-lite chatting with a vital financial tool, is now being downloaded in Ghana.

The app makes available a wallet, crucially in a country where only four in ten people have a transacting account, and where the most-downloaded financial app in the Android store to date has had fewer than 50,000 downloads. And the Humaniq wallet is Blockchain-enabled, which means lower costs, and smoother transactions. But while a more efficient, cheaper means of sending, receiving and storing value that currently available is important, the app offers far more than this.

The Humaniq app provides those people without bank accounts — the majority of the population in Ghana, and 38% of all people in the world — a means of gaining a verified, online identity and, then, once this is in place, connecting with other verified users so they can tell the world about their ideas and talents. Users gain this simply by taking two photographs, one with a specified facial expression, and not with the official identification that is required for bank accounts, which it can take a lot of time, energy and resources to acquire. This is achieved by the latest biometric identification technology.

The beauty of the app, then, is that this easier verification will then allow users to build up a transaction history which can be used by providers of credit on the Humaniq platform. They will be encouraged to transact and refer others to the app straight away by the incentive of receiving cryptocurrency, the HMQ coin, for doing so. Upon downloading, the app gives an option to the user to invite contacts that are not already using the app to join the Humaniq community. Once a number of people join, this is when the app gets really interesting.

In the past, financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa were provided in an informal way, with communities served by ad-hoc financiers who do an amazing job in providing loans and financing small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, but who are unable to scale. The Humaniq App will change this, allowing more potential lenders and borrowers, prospective business partners and others wishing to start new collaborations to connect. The app’s Discover API will allow users to locate and match each other. It will allow users to promote their services on the Humaniq platform: be it for currency exchange, loan services, or even simply a Humaniq community meetup.

Such collaborations can get started through the encrypted messaging and voice calls that the app also provides to allow seamless and easy communication. And payments can be requested or sent simply by selecting a contact, entering a phone number, or with a QR code. This peer-to-peer offering will allow a community to be created and more value to be exchanged and created. And this is just the start.

The functionality of the app will be supplemented by services from start-ups through the Humaniq platform thanks to the Humaniq Accelerator. This last week invited applications from entrepreneurs who are keen to harness the power of Blockchain technology for social good by offering services to the Humaniq global community of users to help them improve their lives. The objective is to provide all those people gaining a digital identity and access to electronic transactions for the first time with new financial and other essential services that allow them to improve the quality of their lives.

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