Barely a year after procuring Ghana’s first everDedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMI) license, financial services company Zeepay has acquired 51% stake in its Zambian counterpart, Mangwee Mobile Money, which is also involved in the provision of financial and payment services.
Zeepay, which is present in Africa and the United Kingdom, will become the majority shareholder of Mangwee, which was set up in 2018 to facilitate mobile payment operations for the benefit of students.
The acquisition of Mangwee is strategic and opens the South African corridor to Zeepay. This will give the startup access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Namibia, among others.
“We will continue our efforts to capture the $70 billion remittance market in Africa and seize this opportunity to deploy our products,” said Andrew Takyi-Appiah (photo), co-founder and CEO of Zeepay.
The decision to invest in Mangwee is part of Zeepay’s Africa-wide expansion strategy. It is working to expand its footprint on the continent to better serve its customers and reduce the cost of remittances in Africa.
Read also Peach Payments Raises More Funding to Accelerate Growth in South Africa
Earlier this year, Zeepay announced its intention to continue its activities in South Africa and Rwanda, and was seeking $10 million to support its development project.
In 2020, it processed 2.4 million transactions valued at $400 million in 10 African markets. Fintech hopes to double its transactions in 2021. As part of this buy-back operation, South Africa’s Verdant Capital acted as counsel on mergers and acquisitions of Zeepay.
In 2019, before the coronavirus shawled the world, Nigeria was Africa’s largest recipient of remittance flows with $23.8 billion followed by Ghana ($3.5 billion), with Kenya receiving $2.8 billion, even though Ghana is the 14th most populated country in Africa, behind countries like Egypt, South Africa, etc.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer