Digital currencies cannot exist on their own. However, as the move towards cryptocurrency increased, we at Patricia, decided to build a bridge between the present and future through a debit card whose purpose was to enable people to spend Crypto any time, anywhere: gas stations, malls, withdraw cash at the ATM, and so on.
My work leading the Products team at Patricia has given me a platform to build and spearhead several innovative fintech solutions. But topping the charts so far is the opportunity to launch Africa’s first Bitcoin debit card — The Patricia Luxury Card.
I’ve had several people ask me what the process entails and the reason behind it. So, I decided to share an abridged guide:
1) To launch a debit card in Nigeria, you need to choose a partner bank. As of now, the CBN has a rule stating that only commercial banks can issue debit/credit cards/payment cards. So, to launch a card you have to either work with a commercial bank or work with an institution that works with a commercial bank. Patricia worked with Rubies who was also working with a commercial bank.
2) The next thing is to choose a card. Rubies only had verve cards at the time, so we went with that.
3) We then created a design, and sent it to Rubies. They made a few tweaks and sent them to Verve for approval. After approval, the bank sent it back to us.
4) Next, we got the Bank to sponsor the Bank Identification No (BIN) i.e the 16-digit number on the card, which cost about 5000 dollars. We used Rubies’ existing BIN. If you’re using an existing BIN belonging to a commercial bank, you’d be bound by the rules governing the bank’s card. However, the beauty about setting up your own BIN is that you set up your own rules for the card, so far it’s in line with CBN regulations.
5) We worked with a creative company to choose the plastic for the card. We chose black plastic and that gave it a luxury feel.
6) The next thing is to set up a card management system. This helps map your card transactions to the account or wallet. We also used Rubies’ existing system. However, in an ideal situation what I would advise is if you want to issue cards, look for a bank that has FEP on-premise.
It was an eye-opening project for us at Patricia, and we wanted to do something different, offer more to our customers, and give them a reason to choose Patricia. Before then, there was no African crypto platform that had launched a debit card. It had never been done before, so we were pioneers in the market, and we learnt a lot in the process.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
