The CEO Publication, a unique print and digital platform featuring the industry experts who have created ripples across various areas of expertise and providing path-breaking platforms have acknowledged the Ghanaian Founder and CEO of PayAngel, Jones Amegbor, among the Top 20 Dynamic CEOs of 2022 who are transforming payment solutions across Africa.
Referring to their publication titled, ‘A True Payment Angel for Africans globally’, the CEO Publications stated: “It is not every day that you meet someone who is as technically gifted in finance and accounting as he is in technology. But such was our luck when we went in search of the Top 20 Dynamic CEOs in the United Kingdom. We met up with Jones Amegbor, the Founder and CEO of PAYINC GROUP which trades under the brand PayAngel globally.
If finance, accounting, risk and technology were languages, we would have to say Jones is fluent in all of them and many more. As a well-rounded financial services executive, Jones is on a mission to change the narrative of not just Africans abroad, but also those on the continent. He intends to connect the world to Africa, and to open Africa to the world through the provision of a seamless payment ecosystem specifically engineered to meet the idiosyncratic needs of Africans globally.”
Taking the risk
Before risking it all to embark on this journey, Jones worked in financial services in the United Kingdom after completing his MBA in Information Technology. He soon became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. During his time at Barclays, Jones won several nominations and awards, including nomination to the bank’s Future Leaders Programme.
As Product Controller, he managed assets worth circa £30 billion. Post-Barclays, he worked as an independent consultant in the treasury functions of Lloyds Banking Group and the Co-operative Banking Group, building complex high value financial models and re-engineering processes.
From that wealth of experience as a banker and creative endeavours as a consultant, Jones has evolved into an architect of innovative financial products and solutions. It is, therefore, not a coincidence that continuous product development has become the corporate culture at PayAngel, as they consistently innovate to satisfy customers’ present and future needs.
Jones takes great inspiration from the life stories of two personalities, namely Jack Ma – founder of Alibaba, and Bob Diamond – ex-CEO of Barclays.
For Jack, “I can only hope to meet him one day soon in my lifetime. I see him as one who exemplifies a fortress in the midst of a storm. His story speaks of his inner tenacity to win against all odds. Coming from very humble beginnings, just like myself, having had a number of past failures, and having been rejected on countless occasions, he was more than convinced he could still win in life and business.
Unflinching assurance in the face of stark uncertainty is what always comes to mind, whenever I see the name Alibaba anywhere. My favourite quote of his is: “Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine”, he said.
Inspired by Jack’s story, Jones always tells himself, “I’ve got no excuse; I have to find a way or make one”.
About Bob, Jones said: “It was a pleasure working for Bob when I was at Barclays; such an incredible and inspiring leader he was!” Jones learned some of his key leadership skills from Bob. He recalled Bob’s spell-binding way of rallying his team to achieve results and seemingly insurmountable targets.
“In my view, Bob was pivotal in the revolutionary success of Barclays Capital and Barclays while he was at the helm. From Bob, I learned that leadership is about connecting with people and harnessing their passions to achieve results.” It goes without saying that Bob was indeed, a very inspiring figure for Jones on his journey to becoming a well-established entrepreneur, seeking to use innovation to make an impact in the financial sector.
Drawing on that inspiration, Jones makes it a point to connect with people, forming teams across the globe to deliver results with passion – that has been the PayAngel story! With each passing day, the company is witnessing impressive growth. Thanks to the incredible team that is making things happen!
Leading towards productivity
PayAngel was a proud winner of the US$250,000 Remittance Grant Facility challenge jointly launched by the Governments of Switzerland and Ghana a couple of years ago.
With this as a catalyst and validation of PayAngel’s work, the company has remained focused on products and services designed to provide tailored payment solutions for individuals and businesses in the markets that they serve. The platform is engineered to deliver exceptional value – affordable, value-added, fast and reliable digital payments to recipients across Sub-Sahara Africa.
Employees of PayAngel are often heard saying, “We don’t just provide payment rails like others; we see payments as needs to be met, not rails to be laid.” Jones explained: “payment rails deliver payment and transfers from one point to another, but it’s blind to the issues along the rails.
With that in mind, unlike our competitors, we are focused on the needs to be met. Without a need, payments and transfer will not be initiated. We therefore design our solutions to ensure that payments and transfers actually get straight to the end point and ready to meet the need for which payment was initiated. For remittances, in the African context, this view resolves cost and integrity issues along the chain that payment rails in themselves cannot resolve.”
The benefits that customers enjoy from using the PayAngel service include, among others, no-fee transfers, market-leading exchange rates, embedded free life insurance and a heroic customer service.
In its quest to continually innovate and deliver on its vision and promises as well as meet the needs of its target customer, the company recently launched a new and improved applications suite – a massive advancement from the old and embedded with capabilities for future innovation. The new applications were built on the founders’ vision to position the company for the future of fintech: seamless real-time borderless digital payments.
The company’s literature tells customers, “We do not just pay lip service to saving you money and deceive you with marketing gimmicks. PayAngel is designed to help Africans save money. Period”! United Nations SDG target 10.c calls for reducing the transaction costs of remittances to less than 3 percent by 2030. PayAngel deems it a sacred duty and a fundamental purpose to develop innovative solutions that reduce the cost of payment and transfers to and within Africa.
Offering innovative payment solutions
The company’s thirst for innovation birthed the development and launch of the world’s first life insurance embedded in a remittance product. This revolutionary product, called the RemitCare Plan, is a free life insurance solution provided in partnership with Allianz Insurance and aims to offer financial support to the insured in case of hospitalisation and in the unfortunate event of death. The product is accessible for free to eligible beneficiaries who receive remittance through PayAngel. With these and many other features designed to save customers money, the company is laser-focused on truly helping Africans save money and putting smiles on their faces.
PayAngel’s innovation extends to collaborating with community groups such as international churches and alumni associations by providing them with tailored solutions that meet specific needs in collecting their dues, donations, collections and even with ticketing for their various events.
Towards the future
“So far in our masterplan, we have endeavoured to perfect our game to direct remittances from the West to a number of African countries. Subsequently, we launched our Merchant Solutions product to the said markets,” Jones said. He added: “Now we are on the verge of operationalising the envisioned borderless wallet. This borderless wallet product provides a single platform that enables customers to move money seamlessly and cost-effectively without the limitations of geographical locations.”
The company recently launched into the Canadian, American and Australian markets, and into seven other African countries including Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. Excitingly, customers in Ghana are set to soon start enjoying the company’s entry into the local peer-2-peer and merchant payment space. Having a certified Blockchain expert as the founder, PayAngel is actively exploring using the technology to further improve its offering and deliver even more value to the people of Africa.
