Visa Partners Ghana’s Zeepay to Ease Diaspora Payments Through Direct Money Transfer

Ghanaian fintech, Zeepay has announced a partnership with Visa which will enable people in foreign countries to directly transfer money to Visa debit and prepaid cardholders in Ghana.

The service which is expected to further deepen Zeepay’s financial inclusion drive across Ghana and Africa will immediately be available to over 2 million Visa cardholders in Ghana.

“The strategy is to present the consumer with various options for receiving remittances from abroad including Visa debit and prepaid cards, mobile money wallets, ATMs and Bank accounts,” Dede Quarshie, Chief Commercial Officer of Zeepay said. “Our omnichannel approach makes Zeepay the preferred partner for remittance payout.”

He also expressed delight at bringing the service to Ghanaians and thanked Zeepay’s banking partners – African Development Bank (ADB) and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) for their support.

In a bid to simplify cross border payments, Zeepay will incorporate Visa Direct into its money transfer platform INSTNTMNY. Visa Direct will enable Ghanaians to make real-time international transfers.

Speaking on the partnership, Visa Ghana Country Manager, Adoma Peprah said Visa is excited about the strategic collaboration with Zeepay which is expected to open new doors for meeting the needs of today’s consumer and continue to contribute to the betterment of the global payments ecosystem:

“Championing the fintech community and our partners to drive the next generation of digital payments is core to our growth strategy at Visa,” he said.

About Zeepay

Founded in 2014 by Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Zeepay is a wholly Ghanaian-owned mobile financial services company that offers a platform for individuals, banks, mobile money wallets, merchants and others to process payment transactions.

The e-payment company has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom and a corporate office in Ghana. It currently operates in 23 African countries including Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, Guinea, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, and Malawi.

The fintech facilitates financial transactions via mobile money, debit/credit cards, ATMs, digital tokens and bank accounts. The fintech also provides a gateway for international money transfers, payments and subscriptions.

Zeepay runs INSTNTMNY, its mobile money remittance platform with a focus on international payments. More than 1 million transactions have reportedly been processed via its platform so far.

Suggested read: MTN Mobile Money Fraud on the Rise in Ghana as Usage Increases Following BoG’s Transaction Fee Waiver

In 2019, Zeepay said it reached over 150 million mobile money subscribers across 20 countries in Africa.

The company raised a total of $200,000 in a seed funding round in 2015.

VISA Partnerships With African Fintechs

Visa, an American multinational financial services company has been quite busy on the African continent. In 2018, Visa together with Tencent and Stripe participated in an $8 million Series A funding round for Nigerian fintech startup, Paystack.

Later in 2019, Visa led a $170 million Series C funding round for Africa-focused fintech, Branch. Visa also partnered with the company virtual prepaid debit card numbers to Branch customers.

Visa then invested $200 million for a 20% stake in Nigerian e-payment giant Interswitch, which saw it become Africa’s first fintech unicorn. Last year, Visa also collaborated with South Africa-based fintech, MFS Africa to enable MFS mobile money users complete remittance transactions using a virtual Visa card.

In January this year, Visa participated in the $35 million Series B round of another Nigerian fintech startup, Flutterwave. Flutterwave announced that it would scale up its Barter service using Visa’s networks.

Recently, Visa partnered with Nigerian e-payment fintech, Paga to allow Paga users transact using Visa’s virtual and physical cards.

Summary

Visa’s partnership with Zeepay is another addition to its African fintech portfolio. According to Zeepay, the initial deployment phase for Visa direct will commence across the company’s European and North American markets and then expand to other markets worldwide.

Visa says its objective in Africa is to accelerate the distribution of payment credentials and expand the acceptance space for digital payments.