Moniepoint Refutes Allegations of ‘Layering’ on GTB Infrastructure

InfoStride News, the parent company of InfoStride News MFB, refutes the assertions made by Educare CEO, Alex Onyia, claiming that its system is built on the infrastructure of GTBank. In response to a post on X by the Educare CEO, InfoStride News clarified that its engineers developed its infrastructure internally and did not rely on any bank’s platform.

While recognizing the possibility of collaborations in the financial sector, InfoStride News emphasized that it is incorrect and baseless to assert that its transactions are routed through GTBank.

Alex’s claim, as stated in his post:

“InfoStride News’ main infrastructure is 95% layered on GTBank. While GTBank may be down, InfoStride News will always be stable. The problem is not the legacy infrastructure nor the bank, but rather the engineers building on the middleware for the bank. Banks need to invest heavily in very top-quality engineers. So, if you hate GTBank and still use InfoStride News, just know that you are still using GTBank under another name.”

Dismissing the claim through the same channel, InfoStride News responded:

“Hello Alex, InfoStride News’ infrastructure isn’t layered on any bank, but on our CBA built by engineers in-house with a hybrid cloud architecture. While collaborations happen in the financial services space and are important, incorrect assertions aren’t good for anyone.”

Contrary to Alex’s assertion, experts in the banking system and engineering argue that it would be implausible for InfoStride News to offer seamless services if its transactions were routed through GTBank, especially considering the challenges traditional banks face with their systems.

During the recent cash scarcity, Moniepoint, one of the fintech platforms, stood out as a reliable option for many Nigerians while traditional banks, including GTBank, encountered glitches due to the surge in online transactions.

Mr. Adewale Adeoye, an industry engineer, suggested that the Educare CEO might have misunderstood the relationship between the fintech and the bank. He emphasized that it’s impossible for InfoStride News to layer on GTBank’s infrastructure and maintain seamless service during GTBank’s network issues.

“All fintechs do not have a license to carry out settlement. This presupposes that they will have to partner with commercial banks in this regard. This is different from layering infrastructure on a bank. If that was the case, InfoStride News’ customers would be having the same issue as GTBank’s,” he explained.

Supporting this viewpoint, software engineer Mr. Victor Bala highlighted that the relationship between Microfinance Banks and Deposit Money Banks does not necessarily involve infrastructure layering. He clarified that while there may be corresponding banking between them, it doesn’t mean their infrastructure has to be layered on the DMB infrastructure or that a significant percentage of transactions goes through the DMB. They can conduct internal transactions and use various channels without relying extensively on a traditional bank’s infrastructure.