Akshay Grover - Afrikan Heroes

Elevating Digital Payments For a Cashless Future in Africa

December 23, 2021

By Akshay Grover

COVID-19 has propelled the adoption of digital payment platforms for millions of people across the African continent. The need for contactless methods of making transactions, transformed what was once a nice-to-have into a necessity.

Indeed, whereas the pandemic has bolstered the adoption of digital payments across industries, demographics and payment types on the continent, Africa has always been at the forefront of the payments space led by mobile money services since 2010.

As a company, serving thousands of businesses at varying growth stages across 35 African countries, we’ve witnessed firsthand the sheer drive and resilience that underpins this revolution in digital payments.

It’s the entrepreneurship spirit of the continent that inspires us to innovate for businesses, connecting people and their resources, aligning our strategy to bolster the adoption of digital payments by…

Deepening Our Presence in Existing Markets

Recently, we expanded into 8 new countries – South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Côte D’Ivoire, Cameroon, DRC, Angola, Ethiopia – in a bid to accelerate the digitization of payments for global, regional and local businesses to build a more connected Africa. By creating seamless payment experiences for businesses and consumers, we’re opening up opportunities for millions to do business, access basic services and even connect with their loved ones when it matters the most. Whereas what we’ve achieved so far is impressive, with coverage across 220 million banking, mobile money and cards consumers, we intend to go deeper in the countries we’re already in. We firmly believe we’ve only scratched the surface and there is unparalleled opportunity in…

Tapping into the Underserved Offline Payments Sector

In a report by GSMA released earlier this year, mobile money accounts grew to 1.2 billion with 43% of new users all from Africa. Inferring from this growth rate in just one year, it’s clear that the market size for offline payments is significantly larger than online payments. In coming years, we’ll be focusing on this space even as we continue to grow in online payments.

In sub saharan Africa alone, there are 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises providing the majority of jobs effectively serving as the backbone of the economy in their countries. Most of these enterprises and the individuals they serve or employ still use offline or cash payments. Whereas we’re keen on expanding access to these businesses, we can only scale by…

Creating a Win-Win Ecosystem through Partnerships

As a fintech company, we’re deeply connected with the banking ecosystem and view them as partners not competitors. Leveraging partnerships with different entities in the industry from banks, to mobile network operators and large enterprises is a fundamental aspect necessary for growth in the fintech space.

Why?

Because as consumers increasingly use digital methods for their payments – from peer-to-peer transactions to purchasing household goods, paying their bills and accessing fundamental services such as healthcare and education- this presents wonderful opportunities for retailers and businesses to grow their digital capabilities as people move from cash dependency.

Enabling businesses to adapt quickly to these changing demands by providing the right infrastrastructure and relevant value-adds is our driving force.

Akshay Grover is the CEO of Cellulant Group

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Ghana Approves License to Cellulant to Launch Tingg

August 6, 2021

The Bank of Ghana has issued a Payment Services Provider (PSP) license to Cellulant paving the way for the company to introduce its digital payments solution for businesses, Tingg, in Ghana. Tingg is a solution that offers simplified payment tools and processes for merchants to manage their payments. Using the mobile and web-based platform, businesses can collect and make payments across multiple channels.

It could be recalled that Cellulant launched the service in Tanzania two weeks ago, after getting a similar license from the central bank in the East African nation, and in Zambia early July. With this approval from the regulator, Cellulant, through Tingg, can acquire and aggregate merchant services, process financial services, deploy POS systems, as well as aggregate payments for banks, institutions, and the public, the company said on Thursday.

Other services allowed include mobile banking and payments, bulk payments, the provision of third-party payment gateways, and a marketplace for regulated financial service providers. These are in addition to the printing and presentation of EMV cards, inward international remittance services, as well as limited use of closed-loop virtual cards.

There’s been significant growth in the use of digital payment systems, such as mobile money, by Ghanaians over the past few years. Nearly 40% of the country’s population aged 15 years and older had a mobile money account as of January 2021.

Cellulant is looking to tap into this growing trend, enabled by the Bank of Ghana’s PSP license, which is a requirement under the Payment Services Act 2019. The law mandates that all Fintech or digital payments companies be licensed by the apex bank before they can operate in the country.

“We believe that Ghana is fast becoming a hub for fintech in Africa,” said Cellulant Ghana Country Manager, Eric Kortey. “Being licensed by the Bank of Ghana means a lot to the growth of our industry and opens doors to increased security and confidence in digital payments systems.”

Hundreds of businesses have already begun using Tingg to collect money digitally from their customers across Ghana, according to Cellulant. In pushing for even greater adoption of its solution, Cellulant will be competing in a market dominated by MTN’s MoMo service and also with the likes of Airtel Tigo and Vodafone providing digital payment solutions.