Nigerian fintech startup, Wallets Africa has partnered with Visa to issue debit cards to its customers.
Since 2018, Wallets Africa has made it easy for users to carry out transactions across the continent with just an app and a card. Now, it is teaming up with Visa to reach a wider market.
The idea for Wallets is simple – financial transactions carried out through digital wallets. If it happened on the internet with Paypal and offline in Kenya, it could definitely happen in Nigeria.
Since then, the company has gone on to establish relationships and integrations with other cards, banks, and switch providers in Nigeria.
Presently, the startup has over 60,000 users and has opened its doors to businesses after witnessing a very interesting twist with user behaviour and feedback of the product.
According to CEO, John Oke, the company soon discovered that the platform could be useful for startups and small businesses.
The company has signed up over 4,000 businesses after launching its business-oriented product late last year. These new signups use the product for bulk payouts, payroll management and expense cards.
With a Wallets Business account, you’re able to pay bills, buy airtime, and make money transfers. You can also get naira and dollar cards to make payments offline and online.
Visa will power Wallets Africa’s new naira and dollar cards, already launched. Both cards will be virtual and physical aimed at business users who hope to initiate local transactions or international transactions as well.
So whether you want to pay for your local ride, or need a card for your next holiday, Wallets got you covered.
Oke thinks this idea is absolutely exciting and gives him such great joy to be able to do this.
We’ve been working with technology suppliers across the world since inception to help offer world-class financial services to Africans, we are very excited to have VISA onboard as we continue on our journey
Franklin Ugobude, Digital Marketing Manager at Wallets Africa also goes on to say that the company is beyond thrilled about this new program.
Before now, we were already issuing virtual cards with our card technology, and physical Visa cards needed to come into play because of our customers. This new partnership is more direct so we’re very psyched about it,” he says.
Speaking on behalf of Visa, Otto Williams VP, Fintech Partnerships says they’re very enthusiastic to work with fintechs, and especially Wallets Africa on this new project.
“The Wallets Africa team has made tremendous progress in a short period of time. I am impressed with the fact that they’ve successfully enabled Visa prepaid cards that work everywhere to thousands of digital natives and entrepreneurs in Nigeria. I look forward to seeing what they’ll do in other African countries soon.”
Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program makes it quicker and easier for fintechs to leverage the global payments leader’s network to introduce new and innovative payment experiences. They started supporting African startups in 2019
Wallets Africa, on the other hand, is moving towards becoming a 360-degree payment instrument for businesses and consumers and will continue to build digital financial channels for the next billion internet users.
