Zeepay’s shareholders celebrated during their Annual General Meeting, the leading financial technology services provider, shared news of increased profits despite a challenging economic outlook. Zeepay has more than doubled its profit before tax, on an annualized basis, as it rose to GH¢11.82 million at the end of 2021 from GH¢5.6 million, the previous year.
The increase is attributable to enhanced partnerships and its application of technology. Although the business model was stress-tested across various markets as economies continued to grapple with the lingering effects of the pandemic and global supply chain bottlenecks, 2021 was in fact a defining year for Zeepay.
During the AGM, Paa Kwasi Yankey stated that the performance did not come as a surprise as Zeepay continues to meet the market’s demands through value-addition beyond what is available elsewhere.
“Customers want to experience the best products possible, and we provide them with the flexibility to choose the components of our service that meet their needs. Whether it is micro-insurance or airtime, our remittance product allows the user journey to continue to meet the needs of our target market,” he explained.
Mr. Yankey emphasized Zeepay’s commitment to creating economic value that directly impacts the unbanked, as it plays its part in the wider goal of comprehensive financial inclusion. “In our increasingly complex world, companies are continuously being encouraged to play a more prominent role in addressing social challenges… we continue to develop an increasingly inclusive culture, building on the opportunities that 2020 provided us to connect and collaborate in different ways,” he added.
Double Double
Zeepay’s stellar performance was most evident in its overall revenue, which rose 145 percent from GH¢16 million at the close of 2020, to GH¢39.4 million last year. This comprised of local income of GH¢31 million, foreign income of GH¢3.94 million and domestic income from mobile money to the tune of GH¢4.44 million. An analysis of its revenue by geographical location shows Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon driving the figures.
In the year under review, the fintech’s operating profit almost tripled as it shot up from GH¢6.36 million in the previous fiscal year to GH¢19 million as Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was GH¢20.55 million, from GH¢6.9 million. Earnings-per-share (EPS) also rose to GH¢87.67 from GH¢41.71.
Zeepay’s transaction count for remittance and mobile money also appreciated to 5.4 million and 6.8 million, respectively. The corresponding figures for the 2020 full year were 2.4 million and 1.8 million.
Outlook
Speaking on the success of its hybrid Remittance and Mobile Money Business model, which has seen Zeepay morph into a bonafide ‘Remittance to Wallet’ focused business, its Managing Director, Andrew Takyi-Appiah said the range of products on offer brings banking to digital wallets.
On the short to medium term outlook, he said: “I believe we are ready for scale and this is evidenced in how we have grown our total processed volumes over the period under reporting from US$400 million in the year 2020 to US$900 million in remittance alone in 2021… We shall continue to invest in our people and process in 2022 as part of efforts to protect the business and harness our growth.”
“We shall expand into the Caribbean – focusing on Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and the Dominican Republic. In Africa, our focus will remain to deepen our partnerships with our flagship partner, while deploying partner business across multiple markets,” he added.
In recent times there has been an increased demand for digital products and services which has resulted in exponential growth for technology companies. Financial Services has seen the most growth especially on the continent. Zeepay expects to see continued growth in the coming months with increased demand for services across their existing markets and an increase in demand for services in new markets.
