Colombia’s real-time payment platform Minka, has announced its expansion to Eastern and Southern Africa, as it plans to build efficient payment infrastructure in the region.
Drawn by the continent’s burgeoning digital payments sector, the company plans to set up shop in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. It also plans to expand to Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi in Southern Africa for the first phase.
Minka stated that its initial focus on Eastern and Southern Africa will be borrowed successful model in Latin America, where it bridges the gaps between banks, financial institutions, Central banks, fintechs, and clearing houses online through shared and connected ledgers.
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Also, the company is banking on the similarities in demography between its home market and the African continent, as well as the latter’s rapidly growing and highly competitive Fintech space.
Speaking on Minka’s expansion to the African region, the company’s CEO Domagoj Rozic said,
“Our expansion into Africa is a testament to our continued mission to build more efficient payments infrastructure across the Global South. Low levels of financial inclusion, a heavy reliance on cash, and non-interoperable legacy payment systems are just a few of the issues our team in Latin America has successfully overcome and we believe it is our duty to continue creating solutions that benefit society”.
Also speaking, Alexander Perko, Minka’s Growth lead said,
“We’re excited to bring our story and the benefits of our approach to people in Africa, where we are building impactful connections between financial institutions of all types and allowing teams to build and connect payment systems in days instead of years”.
Founded in Bogota, Colombia, in 2016, Minka offers a cloud-based programmable solution. The company creatively uses technology to upgrade national payment systems for the digital economy. Also, it simplifies how humans and businesses interact with money, making money movement as simple as possible.
In 2022, Minka announced the raise of $24 million in capital through a funding round led by Tiger Global and Kaszek. The company announced that the funds will be used to modernize the clearing houses and central bank infrastructure and also to grow its network by enabling a fully self-service platform for publishing and moving money to organizations.
The Fintech solutions include;
Real-Time Payments
It enables clients to develop a platform that brings together financial institutions to make money flow in seconds instead of hours.
Alias Directory
With this feature, customers can integrate alias into their payment network to improve the UX by replacing account numbers with relatable info such as phone and mail.
Ledger as a Service
Customers use this solution to manage and track money movements, reward points, or other forms of value in a reliable, scalable, and flexible system.
Minka is the latest Latin American fintech to expand into the African region. Recall that in 2023, Brazilian fintech EBANX launched in 11 African countries. In the same year, Uruguay’s dLocal secured payment service provider licenses from the Central Bank of Kenya and the National Bank of Rwanda. dLocal also secured a similar license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This strategic move of Latin American fintechs into the African region comes as they seek opportunities in new and dynamic markets like Africa, where digital financial services are rapidly gaining traction.
Notably, the rationale behind their African expansion isn’t hidden, as the continent presents a $115 billion digital economy, resulting from a combination of a young and digitally savvy population and increasing digital penetration, according to a report by Endeavor and McKinsey & Company.