Nigeria’s Rex Africa launches AI-native bank with conversational financial agent

Nigerian fintech startup Rex Africa has launched what it says is the country’s first AI-native bank, built around an AI-powered financial agent that gives customers personalised guidance on saving, investing and borrowing.

Founded by Yinka Odeleye, Rex Africa has built its own banking infrastructure, RexCore, with AI integrated from the outset rather than added on later. At the heart of the offering is Rex Atlas, an agent that analyses users’ financial history and lets them interact with their bank conversationally, offering tailored recommendations on savings, investments, credit and risk management.

“We built Rex with AI at the heart of the banking experience, not as an additional feature,” said chief technology officer Opeyemi Emmanuel.

Alongside the agent, Rex offers a suite of products for individuals and businesses. Consumers can access flexible savings through RexSave, fixed-term savings via RexVault, credit through RexFlex, and payments with RexCard. For businesses, RexPOS enables payment acceptance, while RexCredit provides SME and corporate financing.

“Our founding conviction at Rex is that the next generation of banking will be defined by intelligence,” said Odeleye. “We believe banking should go beyond moving money to understanding customers and helping them manage, protect and grow their wealth.”

Rex is powered by Rex Microfinance Bank, which is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with eligible deposits insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

Beyond its consumer app, the company’s ecosystem includes an established lending business and a live banking-as-a-service (BaaS) portal that supports customer accounts, collections and payouts.

Rex says it has already signed up thousands of individual users and hundreds of businesses since launching this month. Nigeria is the company’s immediate focus.

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