The visa has joined African FinTech Company Mony Points as a new investor. The business banking and payment platforms are “strategic investment from the company, which is a global settlement company because the two companies are promoting financial inclusiveness and supporting the growth of small and medium -sized businesses (SME) throughout Africa. I acknowledged that TechCrunch was received.
According to officials close to the transaction, Fintech companies, which announced $ 110 million in October last year, received more than $ 10 million from their visa. This Fintech, which has a total of $ 120 million in Series C, is currently negotiating with other investors, maintaining billions of dollars, and in the future. Stakeholders have stated that they could collect more money in a few months. Manie Point has commented on the size of the visa check and the interests of other investors.
Moniepoint provides bank accounts, credit, payment, and other financial tools to companies and individuals through applications and agents networks. The FinTech currently has more than 1 billion transactions each month, with a total payment of $ 22 billion, an increase of more than 25% in less than three months. The rapid rise began in the early 2023 promotion of cashlessness of the Nigeria Central Bank, and has been steadily continuing, establishing a status as an important player to form the future of digital payments.
Moniepoint is only a small part of the whole market. Nigeria’s digital settlement markets have multiple channels, including electronic remittances, ATMs, POS devices, mobile agents, and web payments. According to a switching between banks in the country, companies and consumers completed trading worth about $ 400 billion in 2023. According to Stearer’s data, electronic remittances using NIPs NIPs, which are comparable to India’s UPI and Brazil Pix, dominate the market and account for nearly 90% of these transactions. Other channels such as mobile agents, ATMs, and POS systems are greatly left behind.
Moniepoint has a business in most of these channels, but Visa’s investment highlights the status and potential of Fintech as both major issuer and acquirer in the Nigerian card value chain. 。
“We are currently leading a merchant acewiering and consumer bank charts in Nigeria,” said Tosin Eniolorunda (photo above, left, co -founder Felix Ik). I talked to. “By using VISA as an investor, we can strategically to grow the payment ecosystem and expand to more countries. This is an important goal for us.”
According to Aniorunda, one of the methods for both companies to aim for “payment ecosystem growth” is the introduction of non -contact payments. “Central banks suggest the need to improve accessibility and promote non -contact services to provide small -scale transactions. These are what we expect from partnerships. Progress in the right direction. is”
Nigeria Central Bank announced in 2023 a guideline draft on transaction restrictions, and stated the latest intention to promote the introduction of non -contact payments. However, the introduction relies on clearer regulations and solving problems related to privacy, security and trust. If non -contact payments are resolved, the transaction volume will increase significantly and may probably exceed other domestic payments.
Visa pointed out that the use of non -contact cards in many markets exceeded mobile wallets in many markets. Moniepoint is in a great position that leads this transition in Nigeria by providing non -contact payment terminals to companies and providing chip cards to individuals, and preparing for further introduction.
On the other hand, Moniepoint uses Visa’s Cyber Source system to improve transaction visibility. In addition, the company plans to integrate Visa Direct for remittance and remittance with the aim of expanding to the market inside and outside the Africa.
VISA has a history of investing in African payment infrastructure, and has been supporting companies such as Interswitch, Flatterwave, Paystack, and Jumo for the past 10 years. The visa has entered the Nigeria’s SME market using the monitoring point, aiming to digitize the settlement for small and medium -sized enterprises, and is hoping to increase the market share in the country’s card system. Currently, the card is left behind in the VERVE and MasterCard on the card. The latter two are starting to take advantage of Tap to Pay.
“Visa’s investment in monster points is the latest example of our long -standing efforts to promote the digital economy in Africa,” said Andrew Torere, a visa Central East Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region. “We will ensure that small and medium -sized enterprises can grow the size while rationalizing their business and can grow the smallest companies through innovative payments and software solutions that can open up a new profitable opportunity.”
The visa will be invested and will join the Monster Board of Directors. Other prominent supporters in Fintech include Diverops Partners International, Google’s African Investment Fund, QED Investments, Light Rock, British International Investment (BII). It also reported that OUI Capital, an early supporter, has recently returned its first fund after investing in African unicorn companies six years ago.