…places Ghanaian fintech strategically in Southern Africa
Zeepay, the leading African Challenger Fintech with operations in over 10 African countries, has today acquired a 51 percent stake in Mangwee Mobile Money Zambia. In a private placement Zeepay and Mangwee agreed to a sale of 51 percent of Mangwee shares to Zeepay. The deal makes Zeepay Ghana majority shareholder of the entity.
Mangwee has been in operation since 2018, and was initially set up to operate as an alternative wallet targetting university students in Zambia with the aim of assisting to drive down the cost of mobile money services.
Zeepay is the leading African challenger fintech with operations across 20 African countries, and is 30-day active in 10 of them. The company specialises in paying remittances into mobile money wallets across Africa and is regulated by both the Bank of Ghana as an EMI issuer and in the UK as a Money Transfer Operator by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The merger is the first of its kind that two indigenous African fintechs into mobile money operations have come together to grow – representing the wind of change ongoing on the African continent. Zeepay’s financial advisor, Verdant Capital, acted as Zeepay’s M&A advisor on the acquisition.
Managing Director of Zeepay, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, in an interview mentioned that: “In 2020 we processed 2.4 million transactions valued at US$400million across 10 markets. The acquisition of Mangwee is strategic and opens up the Southern African corridor for Zeepay. This will give Zeepay access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Namibia among others in our effort to capture Africa’s US$70billion remittance market, and opportunity to deploy our award-winning products”.
Paa Kwasi Yankey, Chairman of Zeepay noted: “The move to invest in Mangwee is part of our global strategy to expand our footprint across Africa in an effort to better serve our global clients and reduce the cost of remittance into Africa.
“Acquisition of Mangwee by Zeepay marks the opening of Southern Africa to the world of conveniently affordable IMT services,” said Aston Njovu, co-founder of Mangwee.
Bwalya Kampamba, a co-founder of Mangwee, also mentioned that: “The partnership with Zeepay is good for Africa and Zambia. Through this, we will be able to leverage their award-winning mobile money products such as Remit Insurance, Payments, and Visa-direct to deepen financial inclusion and open up the markets”.
Zeepay is the fastest-growing mobile financial services company across Africa, with operations in Ghana and the United Kingdom and terminating to 20 countries across Africa, with termination agreements in over 90 jurisdictions globally. We specialise in remittance termination into mobile wallets, and we are completely network and partner agnostic. Zeepay supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and is considered a financial inclusion company positioned to improve last-mile access.
Mangwee is a mobile money transfer platform aimed at increasing the rate of financial inclusion, especially in rural areas, and propelling Zambia and Africa into a cash-light economy. We do this through the provision of an easy, secure and affordable payment platform. Mangwee is a mobile money and remittance platform that began operations in 2018, with the aim of transforming the entire cross-section of education and finance across the African continent beginning with Zambia.
