Zeepay, one of the world’s fastest-growing Fintech companies, has been given the green light by the Central Bank of Barbados, to establish its Zeemoney Caribbean Headquarters on the island.
Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeepay, says the Barbados operation will create direct and indirect employment for about 10,000 Barbadians, while also stimulating the fintech ecosystem.
The Zeepay executive explained that remittances and diaspora payments remain a major source of foreign exchange and household income for developing economies around the world.
He said the World Bank reported that in 2020, remittance inflows into low and middle-income countries defied the Covid-19 pandemic to hit $540 Billion.
Zeepay, which processes remittance payment transactions for over 150 million subscribers across 20 countries in Africa, has been part of this defiant rise in remittance payment on the African Continent.
“Our Barbados company, Zeemoney, will position itself to act as a bridge between Africa and the people of the Caribbean by making it easier for individuals to receive and send funds to friends and family abroad and improve access across 200 corridors globally.”
“Currently, Barbados alone receives about US$216 Million in remittances. This is anticipated to grow through this arrangement.
“Zeemoney will open the country for ease of receipt of international remittances and help improve last-minute access, which hitherto had been a bane as evidenced in the long queues experienced during collection.”
Parent company, Zeepay, through its focus on innovation and technology, increased sales volume to US$400 million in 2020, connecting digital assets such as mobile money wallets, cards, ATM, and global tokens, to international money transfer operators.
With the strategic objective of promoting financial inclusion globally, Zeepay, also with a registered presence in Grenada, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, has offices around the world and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK as well as other regulators across Africa.
Commented CEO Takyi-Appiah: “Our long-term Caribbean objective is to become the number one remittance-to-wallet player in the region and to facilitate this we will leverage our global presence while exploring mergers and acquisitions of other Mobile Financial Service operators and greenfield operations.”
“We are excited by the Caribbean’s great potential for the sustained promotion of financial inclusion and we see Barbados as a strategic gateway for the rest of the region, with transformational and visionary leadership that enjoys growing international respect and a stable economy that’s receptive to innovation and technology.”
