Visa to invest 1bln in Africa’s booming e-payment market

Visa Card investment in Africa

At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit on Wednesday, Visa Inc announced its plan to invest $1 billion in Africa over the following five years in order to take advantage of the rapidly expanding digital payments market in the continent’s emerging economy.

Dozens of African leaders are staying with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., for the three-day event, which began on Tuesday.

CEO Alfred Kelly Jr. said in a statement “Visa has been investing in Africa for several decades to grow a truly local business.”

According to a McKinsey report published in September, the investments in Africa shed new light on a significant development potential on the continent, where cash is anticipated to face competition from e-payments in the years to come.

In contrast to Latin America’s $200 billion e-payments business, Africa’s expanding e-payments sector is anticipated to see revenues climb by about 20% a year, reaching roughly $40 billion by 2025, according to the report.

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Andrew Torre, regional president of Visa for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that “it’s one of our fastest growing regions.”

According to him, the largest payment processor in the world has hired over 50% more people on the continent since the end of 2019, with the vast majority hired during the pandemic.

According to the statement, the investments would enable Visa to expand its operations in Africa and strengthen partnerships with governments, fintech companies, and merchants. It will also “strengthen the payment ecosystem through new innovations and technologies,” the statement continued.

The company just launched Visa Acceptance Cloud, a platform that transforms almost any device into a payment terminal, as one of its new innovations.

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