Boosting financial inclusion in Ghana: The ZEEPAY and Visa partnership

visa zeepay

With around 66% of the adult population in Africa unbanked, Fintech is an evolving industry that has huge opportunity to drive financial inclusion outside of traditional banking systems.

Startup funding in Africa hit record highs in 2019 while FinTech companies gained more recognition this year amid the current pandemic. Zeepay, a Ghanaian-owned mobile financial services company announced their partnership with Visa, to allow the diaspora population to send money directly to Visa debit and prepaid cards in Ghana.

Founded in 2014, Zeepay is a FinTech company that has three offices and a presence in 23 countries with more than 1 million transactions that have been processed via its platform so far.

One of the long-term strategical objectives coming out of this service is to further deepen Zeepay’s financial insertion drive across Ghana and Africa. As well as having the service immediately 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.”

In addition, the e-payment company will integrate Visa Direct into its money transfer platform INSTNTMNY, whilst Visa Direct will enable Ghanaians to make instantaneous international transfers. This method will simplify cross-border payments.

Such collaborations will allow Fintech in Africa to boost the underdeveloped industry represented by traditional financial services. This is achieved by creating a range of tech-based products and solutions, paving the way for startups to close the large gaps that exist in local financial service industries.

What is Visa Direct and its benefits? It is a VisaNet processing capability that accomplishes immediate push payments for small-business and consumer payments, helping financial institutions allow their customers to transfer funds directly to financial accounts using card credentials.

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

The original deployment phase for Visa direct will begin across the company’s European and North American markets and then expand to other markets worldwide, according to Zeepay.

Partnerships of this kind will enable Ghanaians to have better digital experiences and gain instant access to funds from friends and family abroad.

Visa has been investing in the African continent for a while now. For example, in 2018, Visa collaborated with Tencent and Stripe in an $8 million Series A funding round for Nigerian fintech startup, Paystack.