The central bank of Barbados has authorised the fintech company Zeepay to establish its Zeemoney Caribbean headquarters on the island.
In a press release, the Ghana-based firm, which claims to be one of the world’s fastest-growing fintech companies, stated that its activities in Barbados were expected to stimulate the fintech ecosystem while creating approximately 10,000 employment.
Andrew Takyi-Appiah, co-founder and chief executive officer, stated that remittances and diaspora payments remained an important source of foreign money and household income for developing nations worldwide.
In 2020, the World Bank predicted that remittance inflows into low- and middle-income countries will surpass US$540 billion, notwithstanding the covid19 epidemic.
“Our Barbados company, Zeemoney, will position itself to act as a bridge between Africa and the people of the Caribbean by making it easier for individuals to receive and send funds to friends and family abroad and improve access across 200 corridors globally. Currently, Barbados alone receives about US$216 million in remittances and is anticipated to grow through this arrangement. Zeemoney will open the country for ease of receipt of international remittances and help improve last-minute access, which hither to had been a bane as evidenced in the long queues experienced during collection,” he said.
He stated that Zeepay’s parent firm, with its emphasis on innovation and technology, boosted its sales volume to $400 million in 2020, connecting international money transfer operators to digital assets such as mobile money wallets, cards, ATMs, and global tokens.
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In addition to its registered presence in Grenada, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad & Tobago, Zeepay is also regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom and various regulators in Africa. It operates in twenty African nations.
“Our long-term Caribbean objective is to become the number-one remittance-to-wallet player in the region and to facilitate this we will leverage our global presence, while exploring mergers and acquisitions of other mobile financial service operators and green field operations. The company was “excited by the Caribbean’s great potential for the sustained promotion of financial inclusion, and we see Barbados as a strategic gateway for the rest of the region, with transformational and visionary leadership that enjoys growing international respect and a stable economy that’s receptive to innovation and technology,” Takyi-Appiah.
Zeepay Barbados Zeepay Barbados
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
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