For the first time outside of Latin America, EBANX, a worldwide fintech company, intends to expand its payment gateway solution and business operations to Africa. The 10-year-old unicorn, which operates in 15 Latin American nations and has processed over $1 billion in payments, wants to concentrate initially on mobile money in Africa.
The CEO and co-founder, João Del Valle, noted in a statement that although Africa’s digital economy is still in its development, his company chose to pursue it because of its intriguing potential
“Africa’s fast-growing digital economy is only in its early days, and it’s projected to grow up and to the right for the next few decades. Together with local players, EBANX will be a catalyst to realise the many benefits of a digital economy even faster.”
Due to the COVID-19 effect, a young population, and continually increasing rates of digital adoption, Endeavor announced in June 2022 that Africa’s digital economy is anticipated to be valued at $115 billion.
In late August, EBANX began operations in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. These three nations were chosen because, along with Egypt, they account for 32% of the continent’s population, 51% of its GDP, and 73% of the startup accelerators currently operating in Africa. Pipefy, a low-code workflow management platform established in Latin America in 2015 and used in more than 200 nations globally, is available in the African continent with EBANX as its payments partner.
“Expanding our solutions to African countries speaks directly to EBANX’s mission of creating access, and having Pipefy as a merchant makes this moment even more special to us, expanding solutions and services throughout regions full of opportunities,” Paula Bellizia, the President of Global Payments at EBANX, said in a statement.
EBANX aims to focus its strategy, as it did in South America, on partnerships and cooperation with international retailers. In Latin America, the business handles payments for Uber, Airbnb, and over a thousand other online businesses.
Additionally, the business will take into account the most common local payments in each of the nations it is entering. Online shoppers in South Africa will be able to use internet banking to send an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) that is immediately validated. EFT is currently South Africa’s second-most popular online payment option.
Similar to M-Pesa, it will provide a mobile banking service in Kenya that enables users to save and transfer money as well as pay for online purchases using their mobile devices.
It would provide bank transfer and USSD services in Nigeria. Customers will be able to pay for their online purchases using the former, a session-based protocol that uses the GSM signaling channel to query data and activate services. Customers will be able to swiftly and conveniently pay for online transactions using the latter without a credit or debit card.
