Ismail Ahmed, the founder CEO of WorldRemit. PHOTO | COURTESY
Money transfer firm WorldRemit says that it will set up an
office in Kenya this year as it seeks to ...
diversify its business to intra-African remittances.
diversify its business to intra-African remittances.
Kenya
counts as WorldRemit’s second largest receiving market after the
Philippines. About 93 per cent of transfers to Kenya are received via
mobile money accounts.
The UK-based company said that
the Nairobi office will focus on growing the WorldRemit brand and
setting the stage for cross-border mobile money transfer services within
the region.
“Because we have a treasury platform with
many African currencies and because we’re connected to most of the
major mobile money platforms, it is easier for us to help cross border
transfers in Africa… this is part of the business we’re looking at now,”
said WorldRemit chief executive Ismail Ahmed. WorldRemit said that it
can execute money transfers directly to 112 million mobile money
accounts globally.
The company has already been making
some strides in intra-African transfers after it signed a deal with
Kenya Commercial Bank to enable real-time money transfers from the
diaspora to Kenya and five other countries in the East African region.
The
Nairobi office will be the company’s second in Africa after Zimbabwe.
The firm is also considering setting up shop in South Africa, a key
source market for intra-African remittances.
Sending money within the continent is complicated.
It costs more to send money to Africa than any other regions.
World
Bank data shows that on average those sending money to the region will
cough up nearly 10 per cent the value of a transfer.
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