Zeepay Becomes First Non-Bank Institution To Secure Mobile Money License

Zeepay, a leading African fintech giant that operates as a mobile financial services company from Ghana, covering an additional 20 other African markets and still growing, has been granted a license to operate a full Electronic Money Issuer service otherwise known as Mobile Money by the Bank of Ghana.

The service will allow Zeepay’s subscribers to operate the full bouquet of mobile money services such as Cash In, Cash Out, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Transfers, Payments and Digital Termination of Remittances (DTR). 

What this means is that Zeepay customers can now send and receive money across over 150,000 agent network available and also perform other related services out of Zeepay’s full bouquet such as - remittances, micro insurance, auto insurance, mortgage remit, airtime top up, bill payment and pension collections all in partnership with third parties - such as insurance companies, banks, and pension trustees amongst others. 
Chairman of the Board, Paa Kwasi Yankey mentioned that the new Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license will enable Zeepay to extend its current services within the Mobile Financial Services Industry.

He reiterated that, Bank of Ghana’s approval is a historic landmark, considering that Zeepay is the first Non-Bank Financial Services to be so issued. He further intimated this is also a testament of the President Akuffo-Addo led administration’s commitment to empowering Ghanaians and start-ups.

“I am excited and believe that this landmark approval will open doors for Zeepay across the African continent - where we have significant operations in countries such as Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Guinea amongst others.”

Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Managing Director noted that since 2014 when Zeepay embarked on this journey, the company has never stopped to innovate- from being the first to introduce Tap & Pay services to mobile money, PoS acquiring for mobile money wallets and digital termination of remittances to mobile wallets.

“We are deeply humbled and grateful to the Bank of Ghana for this approval. Especially to the Leadership of Bank of Ghana. We will like to express our gratitude to our shareholders Kwame Achampong-Kyei, Zoe Phillips, Paa Kwasi Yankey and Aaron Sackey for all their relentless support and our partners the likes of MoneyGram, Small World, Thunes, RIA, DMA Consulting, Barclays Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, ADB bank, FAB Bank, Bank of Africa and all our Board members; including John Gely and Patrick of MoneyGram, Natasha and Nick Day of Small World and Robert Kotei of RIA and AB, Sandra Yao and Djibril and others for believing in us.” 

Mr. Takyi-Appiah further mentioned that “Central Banks in Africa should follow the lead of Ghana and go a step further to recognize such approvals in their markets through Passporting like it's done in Europe. Where Zeepay is regulated across all 28 countries through similar Passporting arrangements from the United Kingdom.”

“The approval will enable Zeepay improve last mile access to financial services for over 20million Ghanaians while offering safety, convenience and significant cost savings. We look forward to exciting times ahead, where in partnership with banks, insurance companies, fintechs’, application service providers and pension fund managers amongst others, we offer mobile financial services products to our large pull of over 2million users across Ghana.”

Head of Commercial at Zeepay, Dede Quarshie further expressed the company’s gratitude and profound appreciation to the central bank and the payment systems team for their tremendous support.