The Central Bank of Ghana has granted Chipper Cash, a fintech company based in Ghana, an Enhanced Payment Service Provider license. The entity must be able to provide hardware and software for its services, as well as undertake international fund transfers, under this license.
Chipper Cash has raised more than $250 million in funding from a variety of investors, including Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions VC fund, Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, One Way Ventures, 500 Startups, Tribe Capital, and Brue2 Ventures, making it Africa’s sixth unicorn.
The startup, which was founded in 2018 by Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled and Ugandan Ham Serunjogi, aims to alleviate the challenges connected with transacting between African countries, such as exorbitant rates and regulatory hassles.
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There are two types of fintech license holders in Ghana:
1) Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs); and
2) Enhanced Payment Service Providers (EPSPs).
A Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMI) in Ghana is an fintech company licensed under Section 24 of Ghana’s Payment Systems and Services Act of 2019. Generally, a DEMI exists to offer electronic money services. The license is relatively new in the country with Zeepay picking up the first ever DEMI license just recently in 2020. As of now, only about 5 fintech companies have the license in Ghana — that is, apart from Zeepay, Airtel Mobile, Vodafone Mobile, others are GCB G-Money and Yup Ghana Limited.
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On the other hand, an Enhanced Payment Service Provider license offers a wider range of benefits, including but not limited to ability to support provision of services including electronic funds transfer, facilitation of interoperability of payment systems and services. It also allows a company to embark on the provision of services such as supporting the payment system aggregation, provision of electronic platforms for payment or receipt of funds, and the provision of technological services to facilitate switching, routing, clearing and data management. The Bank of Ghana, also, most recently released a list of 18 approved Enhanced Payment Service Providers, although the country’s first ever payment service provider license was given to Nsano Limited only in May 2020.
Chipper Cash Ghana Chipper Cash Ghana
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