Technology
Visa Buys Stake in Interswitch to Raise Value to $1bn
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
World leader in digital payments, Visa Incorporated, has invested millions of Dollars in leading technology-driven company in Nigeria, Interswitch Limited to raise the valuation of the valuable African FinTech business to $1 billion.
A statement from Interswitch confirmed that Visa is joining its fold as a minority shareholder, with the transactions, expected to close by Q1 2020, subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
There had been reports that Visa invested about $200 million in Interswitch to take 20 percent controlling stake in the Nigerian firm, but Interswitch, which did not confirm this, said the strategic partnership between both organisations will further advance the digital payments ecosystem across Africa.
However, it noted that Visa will join globally renowned investors, Helios Investment Partners, TA Associates and IFC, as shareholders in Interswitch, alongside company management.
The statement said the deal will create an instant acceptance network across Africa to benefit consumers and merchants and facilitate greater connectivity for communities. Both parties will also retain their respective independent solutions, and Interswitch will retain its scheme neutral strategy.
Founder and CEO of Interswitch, Mr Mitchell Elegbe, stated that, “Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing payments market in the world, with growth driven by a young and dynamic population, rapidly evolving consumer behaviour, and an increasing desire for payment solutions that can be accepted across the continent and abroad. I am delighted that Interswitch has formed a partnership with Visa, with whom we plan to drive the next phase of transformation in the African payments landscape.”
On his part, Regional President of CEMEA at Visa, Mr Andrew Torre, said, “Africa is a priority region for us, and we continually seek strategic partnerships with local players to further strengthen our leadership position and enhance the payments ecosystem across the continent.
“This partnership aligns with our global strategy to work with and invest in innovative partners, and we look forward to working with Interswitch to provide new consumer and merchant experiences and support the rapid growth of digital commerce across Africa.”
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios, Mr Babatunde Soyoye, noted that, “A strategic investment by Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, into Interswitch is a substantial endorsement of the Company’s expertise in African payments.
“As an active investor in leading African payments businesses, we see tremendous opportunities to digitise payments across the continent and have worked closely with Interswitch’s management team to build a high quality and scalable platform geared to address some of these opportunities. We look forward to further collaboration with the Company alongside Visa.”
Founded in 2002, Interswitch disrupted the traditional cash-based payments value chain in Nigeria by introducing electronic payments processing and switching services.
Today, Interswitch is a leading player in Nigeria’s developing financial ecosystem with omni-channel capabilities across the payments value chain, processing over 500 million transactions per month in May 2019.
In 2018, electronic payments in Africa accounted for only 12 percent of transactions by volume, compared to 54 per cent in Europe and 79 per cent in North America. Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing digital payments market in the world, with electronic payment volume expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 35 percent from 2018 to 2023 in the region (excluding South Africa). This progress is expected to be driven by the deepening payments infrastructure, population and urbanisation growth, GDP growth above the global average, increased mobile and internet penetration, as well as a supportive regulatory landscape for electronic payments and financial inclusion.
Interswitch’s core market, Nigeria, is the largest economy in Africa with a rapidly growing electronic payments market. Point of Sale (POS) and ATM transactions per adult grew at a CAGR of 94 percent and 59 percent from 2013 to 2018, respectively.
In Nigeria, there were only 11 card transactions per adult per annum in 2018 compared to 92 in markets like South Africa, 126 in Brazil and 465 in the UK. Despite this market under-penetration, POS card transactions in Nigeria are expected to grow at a CAGR of 63 percent between 2018 and 2023.
In addition to its switching and processing services, Interswitch owns Verve, the largest domestic debit card scheme in Africa with more than 19 million cards activated on its network as of May 2019.
The business also operates Quickteller, a leading multichannel consumer payments platform, driving financial inclusion across Nigeria with over 270,000 access points, as of 2018, from which consumers can initiate peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, airtime purchases, and other e-commerce transactions, processing over 42 million transactions monthly as of July 31, 2019 (equivalent to over N560 billion ($1.5 billion) through direct, indirect and Paypoint channels).
Interswitch’s unique market capabilities and strong consumer proposition, has enabled it to deliver consecutive years of sustainable profitable growth.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian government and the Republic of Finland have formalised a strategic partnership on digitalisation and innovation, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at expanding economic activities and strengthening cooperation in the digital sector.
The agreement was signed in Abuja by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, and Mr Jarno Syrjälä, Under‑Secretary of State (International Trade) at Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
According to a statement from the Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the communications minister, Mr Isime Esene, the MoU will establish a framework for collaboration across key areas, including digital government, emerging technologies, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity, innovation ecosystems, and capacity building.
Mr Tijani described the signing as “an important step in strengthening the partnership between both countries as we work to build a more inclusive, innovation-driven digital economy.”
“This agreement is a significant next step following our engagements in Helsinki in February, where we met with key stakeholders, including Finnvera and Finnfund, and held productive discussions on advancing collaboration around digital infrastructure, the Data Exchange Platform, and opportunities for Finnish participation in Project Bridge.”
The Minister emphasised that the partnership would “unlock meaningful opportunities for both countries, enabling us to leverage digital transformation as a catalyst for sustainable growth and shared prosperity.”
Echoing this optimism, Mr Syrjälä said: “Finland is very pleased to deepen its partnership with Nigeria in building resilient, secure, and human‑centric digital societies. Digitalisation is at its best when it empowers people, strengthens trust, and creates new opportunities for innovation.”
“Nigeria is a key partner for Finland in Africa, and this MoU provides a strong basis for concrete cooperation between our governments, institutions, and private sectors. Together, we can advance digital solutions that are interoperable, future‑fit, and beneficial to both our nations,” he added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
New Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools designed to provide support for users of its applications have been launched by Meta.
The AI Support Assistant will work on the Facebook and Instagram apps, the company said in a statement.
The tools will help users to receive reliable and action-oriented assistance when needed.
In December, the Meta AI support assistant, a tool designed to provide reliable, 24/7 support for nearly any support issue at any time, was previewed.
Now, Meta is rolling it out globally on the Facebook and Instagram apps for iOS and Android, and within Help Centre on Facebook and Instagram on desktop, with even more capabilities and ways to help.
The new Meta AI support assistant is designed to help resolve account problems from start to finish. It offers answers for any question, like notification settings or new features, and can also take action for users on a growing set of requests directly within Facebook and, in the future, on Instagram.
The feature can report scams, impersonation accounts, or problematic content, make it easier to see why content was taken down, provide appeal options, track what happens next, manage privacy settings, reset passwords, and update profile settings.
The Meta AI support assistant can respond to requests typically in under five seconds, dramatically reducing wait times compared to traditional help centre searches or seeking answers on external websites.
“The Meta AI support assistant is a major step in our work to deliver stronger support on our apps. In fact, among people who have provided feedback, the majority report a positive experience with the Meta AI support assistant. It’s rolling out now in all languages supported by Facebook and Instagram for support topics.
“We’re continuing to invest in AI- powered tools to make support more accessible, reliable, and effective — and we’ll keep evolving the Meta AI support assistant as more people use it and as the technology advances, so it continues to improve over time,” the organisation disclosed.
Meta has also deployed AI to improve content enforcement to help users reduce the chance that scammers trick people into giving away their login details, ultimately finding and mitigating 5,000 scam attempts per day that no existing review team had caught before.
Meta said over the next few years, it would be deploying these more advanced AI systems across its apps once they consistently perform better than its current methods of content enforcement, transforming its approach.
“As we do this, we’ll reduce our reliance on third-party vendors for content enforcement and focus on strengthening our internal systems and workforce.
“While we’ll still have people who review content, these systems will be able to take on work that’s better-suited to technology, like repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are constantly changing their tactics, such as with illicit drug sales or scams,” it stated.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
As part of its commitment to celebrating and rewarding creativity, Facebook has updated its guidance, with clear definitions of what counts as original and unoriginal content.
In a message on Monday, the social media platform said it was offering content creators new tools to report impersonation.
Launched last year, the content protection tool is expanding beyond detecting reel matches across Meta platforms to now also flag potential impersonation.
Creators can take action on content theft and easily submit impersonation reports all in one place.
Facebook, in the statement received by Business Post, said creators can check for access to content protection in their professional dashboard or apply for access here.
The platform also disclosed that in 2025, it removed over 20 million accounts impersonating large content creators, and impersonation reports related to large content creators dropped by 33 per cent.
Further, Facebook is deprioritising unoriginal content by making sure they do not perform well on its platform.
It noted that content that is duplicated from other sources or makes low-value changes to someone else’s content may see significantly reduced reach, and accounts that primarily post unoriginal content may lose eligibility for recommendations and monetisation.
It was emphasised that “these changes provide creators who post original content with greater reach and monetisation opportunities, provide stronger protections for their work, and reduce the reach of unoriginal content.”
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