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Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has launched a new cash pickup service in Algeria and Lebanon, according to a press release.In Lebanon, funds recipients can collect cash from more than 130 branches of Wings International. Algerian recipients can collect cash from any branch of Trust Bank Algeria across the country. With the WorldRemit app or website, people in more than 50 countries can send instant, secure money transfers to more than 125 destinations, the release said.

In Lebanon, funds recipients can collect cash from more than 130 branches of Wings International. Algerian recipients can collect cash from any branch of Trust Bank Algeria across the country. With the WorldRemit app or website, people in more than 50 countries can send instant, secure money transfers to more than 125 destinations, the release said.

With the WorldRemit app or website, people in more than 50 countries can send instant, secure money transfers to more than 125 destinations, the release said.

Through Xpress Money’s extensive agent partner network, WorldRemit customers will be able to make secure, instant money transfers to be collected as cash. Initial countries in the rollout will include Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tonga. Over the next few months, customers will also be able to receive money transfers in their bank accounts, mobile wallets, etc. 

tance as easy as sending an instant message.Xpress Money is one of the fastest growing instant money transfer com

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit, comments: “We want to offer our customers the widest and most convenient choice of payout options. Xpress Money is a trusted and dependable money transfer brand with a fantastic network of agents across the world. Our partnership will extend our footprint into new territories and will enable even more people to make secure, instant money transfers.”

SimbaPay uses advanced security technology and leading global partners to ensure the safety and security of your data and transaction

Forging another link between Africa and China’s digital economies, the African-focused money transfer startup SimbaPay and Kenya’s Family Bank have launched an instant payment service from East Africa to China.

A uniquely integrated international fintech ecosystem that allows customers to make online money transfers using mobile money, bank account transfers, and cash pick-up services. We built Africa’s first truly global super app to help drive our ‘financial inclusion for all’ vision. A multi-service technology platform that brings together digital payment solutions, on-demand services, instant messaging, and digital media services in a single, easy-to-use mobile application. In some of our key markets across Africa, we have been able to drive financial inclusion from under 10% to 70-80% through solutions that have helped to create thousands of jobs and business opportunities for young entrepreneurs.

Customers can also use our bill settlement technology to pay merchants in Africa such as universities, mortgage providers, hospitals, utility companies etc. Payments are instant and we cut out the 'middle-man' thus reducing transaction costs for the customer.

Customers can also use our bill settlement technology to pay merchants in Africa such as universities, mortgage providers, hospitals, utility companies etc. Payments are instant and we cut out the 'middle-man' thus reducing transaction costs for the customer.

The chatbot will also enable 24/7 instant customer service for its customers across Africa and Europe. Daniel Howard, CTO for SimbaPay, says: “Another major objective we achieved with the chatbot service is that it also works without internet. This means customers with a mobile phone, even a basic phone without internet access, can access the SimbaPay chatbot using SMS.” Together with Interswitch, SimbaPay says its B2B division offers its instant remittance technology to banks and telcos who want to provide their customers with the service. To send money with an SMS users need the recipient’s phone number and the chatbot will automatically obtain the recipient bank account or mobile money details.

SimbaPay's head of operations, Victor Karanja, stated the service will provide a seamless platform for Prime Bank's customer base to send money abroad.

SimbaPay is a UK-based digital money transfer service serving Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana that delivers money via existing mobile money wallet services and using its SimbaPay app. Simbapay and Kenya’s Family Bank recently launched an instant payment service from East Africa to China. Users can send funds to China through Family Bank’s PesaPap app or Safaricom’s M-Pesa.

Founded in 2009, Paga offers digital bank services (peer-to-peer money transfer, bill payments, online payments, and payroll), achieving a wide reach in Nigeria.

Financial intermediation and financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa remain low, despite progress in recent years. Helped by reforms, the depth and coverage of financial systems in sub-Saharan Africa—as measured by the standard indicators of financial development, such as the ratios of private sector credit to GDP and broad money to GDP—have significantly improved over the period 1995 to 2013 (Kasekende 2010). However, on average, countries in sub-Saharan Africa continue to have a shallower financial system than those in other developing regions of the world (Figure 1). In terms of financial inclusion, only 20 percent of the population has a bank account compared to 92 percent in advanced economies and 38 percent in nonadvanced economies (Table 1). Underinvestment, poor infrastructure, and comparatively low levels of financial literacy have contributed to the region being underbanked.

This is not the first cross border transfer initiative by SimbaPay. The London-based company supports more cost-effective and efficient transfer of funds across Africa and Asia (11 countries – 9 African, 2 Asian). These are Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Madagascar, Niger, India and now China.

SimbaPay developed a third-party payment aggregator that enables funds delivery between Kenyan merchants and their largest source of imports, China. Through SimbaPay’s international money transfer service, merchants and individuals in Kenya would be able to send money to China’s WeChat Pay users from Family Bank’s PesaPap mobile banking application. This can be achieved through M-Pesa and a USSD service

Lending through a pandemic COVID-19 has prevented them settling into Kenya, where there are no less than 50 digital lending platforms competing for an adult population that is over 80% financially included.  Reports of predatory lending have increased red tape in the East African country. A newly gazetted directive bars digital lenders from reporting defaulting borrowers below certain amounts to credit bureaus, among other rules.  It increases the time it will take for a new entrant like Carbon to comfortably express its various services. “We haven’t really had a chance to test the engine,” Dozie says, but they have given out enough loans to calibrate their algorithm. In Nigeria, they have reduced lending to shore up against the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, revising the repayment schedule for 9,016 loans. However, Dozie says they are currently at more than half the level achieved last year, in value and volume. Another profitable year ahead? Carbon’s products need overall improvement, in responding to customer complaints (see responses to this tweet) about deductions, and notification lags, among others. The pandemic’s impact on the Nigerian economy could have an effect on the company’s bottom line. Profit in the next report might as well be less impressive than what this year’s report contains. “It will be easier to beat [this year’s] numbers in naira terms, but we are all at the mercy of macroeconomics on the dollar terms,” Dozie says. He says they will report whatever happens, as part of a long-term pitch to customers who, he believes, will be impressed by an honest expression of financial strength. Otherwise, focus remains on leveraging other strategic moves from 2019, notably the acquisition of payments startup Amplify.  The latter’s intellectual property has gone into developing an SME platform, as well as in developing Carbon Express, a smartphone keypad button that can be used for instant transactions within any app. Carbon acquired Amplify particularly for this feature and their engineering. Maxwell Obi, one of Amplify’s two co-founders who joined Carbon as part of the deal, has left the company, but the others have been instrumental in building valuable aspects like an iOS app.

Another value-adding space is credit reporting. Carbon doesn’t produce the reports; they source from partner bureaus, and make them available to customers. 

In an audited report published this week, Carbon, the Nigerian fintech company, declared that it made the naira equivalent of $312,905 in profit after tax in 2019. 

Our customers are in emerging markets across Africa and Asia. Most of them are micro and small to medium enterprises who need instant access to finance so they can grow and invest. So far we’ve served more than 10 million customers and disbursed over 40 million loans – and the numbers are rising daily.

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit, states that WorldRemit customers can send money with just a few taps on their smartphone and that the new cash pick up service in Algeria enables people in the diaspora to send money to be collected as cash at financial brands back home. WorldRemit customers currently send over 500,000 transfers every month

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has launched new cash pick up services in Algeria. With the WorldRemit app or website, people in more than 50 countries can send instant money transfers to more than 125 destinations. WorldRemit customers can now send money to be collected as cash from any branch of Trust Bank Algeria.

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has launched new cash pick up services in Algeria.

Prime Bank, a leading private bank in Kenya, has partnered with London-based FinTech SimbaPay, to launch an instant international money transfer service via the bank’s digital platform PrimeMobi.Through SimbaPay, Prime Bank customers will now be able to instantly and securely send money directly to bank accounts or mobile wallets across 15 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia including India, United Kingdom, China (WeChat Pay), Germany, Uganda among others, the company said in a media statement.

“The app intelligently integrates with the Mobile Money account of the subscriber and an agreed amount is deducted from the account daily, weekly or monthly and invested into financial investment solution on behalf of the customer. Investing small sums of money every day, using the power of compound interest, quickly adds up to build the wealth portfolio of our clients. Unlike other services, we make investment stress free.

Personal Investment Invest Mobile simplifies personal investment solutions. Just deposit money into your mobile money account or Visa card and link it to your app. Group Investment They make it easy for organisations to invest together. All you have to do is create a group investment and invite members to invest with you Loans Should you ever need cash before your maturity date, no need to cancel your investment, just apply for an instant loan.

South Africa-based financial technology firm JUMO plans to expand in high-growth Asian markets after securing the backing of Goldman Sachs GS.N in an equity funding round, the company's chief executive said.

Since its founding in 2014, JUMO, which helps individuals and small businesses access savings and credit products through their mobile devices, has mainly focused on Africa where the adoption of mobile money has transformed the banking landscape.

JUMO uses behavioural data such as mobile telephone use to help financial services providers and mobile network operators assess lending risk and tailor financial products to those living in developing countries where credit information is scarce.

We live in a world of instant global communication. Yet the business of sending money abroad has remained stuck in the past. Many money transfer companies still make their customers visit an agent and fill-out bits of paper. And despite the inconvenience, their rates are often punishing.

AIRO: There is a growing demand among Egyptian consumers for more convenient payment methods, according to a recent survey conducted by Fawry, the first nationwide electronic payment service in Egypt. Over 90 percent of Egyptians said that saving time was their primary concern when it comes to paying bills.

Ashraf Sabry, CEO of Fawry, said, “Research conducted for Fawry by IPSOS showed that 85.6 percent of respondents surveyed are seeking more efficient payment methods for household bills. The average Egyptian family has between 15 to 17 regular payments to make. These include mobile and landline bills, utilities, insurance, school or university fees and much more.

Fawry was established in response to growing consumer demand for alternative payment methods that simplify the process of receiving bills and paying them. Fawry today has 12,000 Fawry payment points across the country, that form one-stop-shop, instant, multiple-bill payment locations

Across the globe, smallholder farmers lose between $50 billion and $100 billion annually, often from natural disasters, but reportedly only 1% is insured from these accidents. As an example, in Feburary 2019, the company made several payouts to farmers in Kenya as poor rainfall caused large amount of crop failure.

Jason Schapiro, WorldCover Lead Engineer, said “Our algorithms are specifically calibrated to rainfall events by region and crop type, automatically triggering instant payouts to insured farmers through mobile money services like M-Pesa.”