Timonn, an Ivorian application to fill the lack of small currency
Launched on January 1, 2017 in Abidjan by the entrepreneur Barthélemy Kouamé, Timmon is a mobile application enabling individuals to exchange small sums of money with traders. Its objective is to fill the lack of small currency in the Ivorian economic capital.
How Timmon application works
Once the application is downloaded to a smartphone through Google Playstore, individuals can charge up to 5,000 CFA francs (7.6 euros) on their accounts at an authorized center. “They can then pay for their small races at merchants who have also downloaded the application, but also get their small change, which they can then use elsewhere or withdraw,” (Barthélemy Kouamé).
The account opening is completely free. There is no charge for withdrawals or deposits to a Timonn account. The only charges is the account maintenance fees. Individuals who use this service are billed at 200 CFA francs per month (0.30 euros) while the merchants will be charged 500 CFA francs per month and are able to charge up to 50,000 CFA francs (76 euros) each day. Timonn will also soon be rechargeable via Orange Money which will prevent users from moving to recharge their account.
With more than 10,000 downloads and one million CFA francs (1523 euros) of digital assets in circulation, the application is already used by some forty businesses in Abidjan.
What are the future goals?
Timmon aims to establish itself in the rest of the country and develop other services, such as the purchase of bus tickets. It then plans to develop in other cities of Ivory Coast, and why not in other West African countries such as Benin, Togo, or Burkina Faso, which seem already interested in this innovation.
Source: Jeune Afrique & amp; Cotedivoire.news
