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Visa Buys Stake in Interswitch to Raise Value to $1bn

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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.

Modupe Gbadeyanka is a fast-rising journalist with Business Post Nigeria. Her passion for journalism is amazing. She is willing to learn more with a view to becoming one of the best pen-pushers in Nigeria. Her role models are the duo of CNN's Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour.

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Hadron by Tether Integrates Chainalysis

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Hadron by Tether

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

Hadron by Tether has set a new standard for compliant tokenization with the integration of Chainalysis’ compliance and monitoring tools.

This upgrade brings institutional-grade oversight to Hadron by Tether by further strengthening its position as a trusted and regulation-ready marketplace for token issuance and asset management.

With this, the system can now monitor transactions to flag suspicious activity and enable ongoing compliance, and also streamlines onboarding and due diligence processes.

“With Hadron by Tether, we’re building the gold standard for compliant, secure, and scalable tokenization.

“By integrating Chainalysis directly into the platform, we’re offering institutional-grade transparency, compliance, and risk mitigation without compromising on decentralization or control,” the chief executive of Tether, Mr Paolo Ardoino, said.

“Chainalysis has always believed that trust is the foundation for the future of digital assets.

“We’re proud of this work with Hadron by Tether that will bring digital assets and blockchain technology to more institutions and organizations underpinned by our technology and blockchain intelligence that make the solution ready for a compliance-first world,” the chief executive of Chainalysis, Mr Jonathan Levin, stated.

Designed for institutions, corporations, and governments, Hadron by Tether enables the creation, management, and deployment of tokenized assets such as stablecoins, bonds, funds, and commodity-backed tokens across multiple blockchains.

With the integration of Chainalysis, participants now gain access to enhanced risk detection, real-time transaction monitoring, and full Know Your Transaction (KYT) support – ensuring adherence to global regulatory standards from day one.

This latest enhancement follows Tether’s broader commitment to security and accountability. As the issuer of USD₮, the most widely used stablecoin in the world, Tether has collaborated with over 255 law enforcement agencies across 55 countries and helped freeze more than $2.7 billion in illicit assets to date.

The same compliance ethos is now embedded in Hadron by Tether, empowering asset issuers to operate with confidence in an increasingly regulated environment.

The Chainalysis integration represents a major step in making Hadron by Tether not only a powerful platform for tokenization, but also a future-proof infrastructure layer for digital assets.

Tether previously announced it had adopted Chainalysis’ ecosystem monitoring solution to enhance surveillance across secondary markets and bolster compliance across all Tether tokens.

Now, those same advanced tools are directly accessible to Hadron participants, reinforcing a unified compliance standard across Tether’s expanding digital asset ecosystem.

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Zoho Unveils New AI Assistant for Zoho Creator

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By Aduragbemi Omiyale

To facilitate faster, simpler, and more intelligent app building, Zoho Corporation has launched new services and features within its low-code application development platform, Zoho Creator.

The new Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant, CoCreator, can be used to build applications by using voice and written prompts, process flows and business specification documents.

In a statement to Business Post on Monday, the global technology company said this milestone reflects its commitment to investing in AI capabilities that offer real-time, practical, and secure advantages to business users.

Powered by Zia, CoCreator drives shorter go-to-market timeframes and democratises app creation for users of varying  skill levels—all without requiring add-ons to a customer’s existing subscription.

Zia has served as a bridge across Zoho’s entire product suite, including Creator, since its launch in 2015.

As AI becomes increasingly central to business operations, Zoho’s complete ownership of its tech stack and deep AI integration provides customers with a higher level of contextual AI across all company workflows compared to competitors. This empowers users with a system that truly understands their data and anticipates its usage.

Among the newly-launched capabilities is the Idea-to-App Generation feature, allowing businesses to utilise ZohoAI or OpenAI to develop full-fledged applications including contextual integrations, automations, permission sets and insightful dashboards.

By using text or voice prompts, process flow diagrams, or systems documentations like software requirement specifications (SRS), Creator will provide domain-specific suggestions, ideas for relevant fields, and modules tailored to a customer’s business

Contextual component generation AI enhances existing applications by offering prompt-based form generation. Zia also proactively suggests contextual fields within forms, a functionality missing from many low-code development platforms.

Developers of all skill levels can generate and optimise code blocks contextually within apps using Zia’s prompter, and also annotate existing code blocks for future maintenance.

Further advancing business capabilities, users can rapidly transform unstructured data from various file types and databases into custom applications and remove inconsistencies using the AI-driven data cleansing and modelling feature.

Additionally, the newly-introduced AI Skills enables businesses to build apps with specialised skills that interpret natural language instructions in the business context and automate complex chains of actions intelligently. This feature is currently available in early access and will be widely available from June 2025.

“Since we introduced Creator in 2006, our mission has been to make app development simpler and faster, without compromising on functionality.

“AI now takes us to the next level, shortening the time from an idea to an app.

“Today’s announcement significantly raises the baseline on speed of quality app creation with deep capabilities, without adding costs,” the Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, stated.

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The Unsung Heroes of Fintech: How Creatives Are Driving Growth and Trust in the Financial Industry

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By Samuel Olaniran

Many experts have highlighted the growing impact of creatives—especially those in product and brand design—across the financial industry, and how their work helps financial companies build trust, communicate value propositions, and drive growth.

These creatives shape the overall product and visual identity of financial brands, creating not just logos, colour schemes, and layouts, but also cohesive design systems that convey professionalism and reliability. This is crucial because trust is vital in finance. A strong, consistent brand and product design helps customers feel secure and confident in their financial decisions.

In digital platforms, product designers improve user experience. They ensure mobile apps, websites, and other tools are not only visually appealing but also functional and easy to navigate. A smooth, intuitive interface encourages users to engage more, making digital banking and investing more accessible to a wider audience. This can drive growth, as people are more likely to trust and stick with platforms that are easy to use.

Brand and product designers also simplify complex financial data through infographics and visualizations. Finance can be overwhelming, but clear visuals and product-led storytelling make it easier for customers to understand. Infographics turn complicated reports into digestible, engaging content, which can help customers make better financial decisions.

Marketing in finance also relies heavily on thoughtful brand design. Designers create visually appealing campaigns that catch the attention of potential customers. Whether it’s an ad on social media or an email newsletter, well-crafted design helps companies stand out and build a strong online presence.

In a competitive industry like fintech, where innovation is key, product and brand design can be the difference between success and failure.

As financial institutions grow globally, product designers help adapt their offerings and messaging to different cultures. By adjusting colours, symbols, and user interface elements to fit local preferences, they ensure financial products are accessible to a wider audience. This helps companies expand into new markets while keeping their brand relevant and consistent.

Looking ahead, the role of product and brand designers will only become more important. Their creative work is key to building trust, improving user experience, simplifying data, and leading marketing efforts. As finance continues to evolve, their role will remain essential in helping companies grow and connect with customers.

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