Sunpay solutions S.C gears to knock on the doors of the Ethiopian digital payment landscape by offering a payment system set up with an initial capital of 100 Million Birr.
Sunpay Solutions, a sister company of Sunshine Investment Group, has developed its own digital payment platform “sunpay” by highly driven well-skilled individuals from the fintech industry and is set to launch the service in July 2021. Upon securing a license to become a Payment gateway and POS operator in Ethiopia, is also working with a plan to be a switch operator in the next few months.
The company is currently awaiting full approval from the national bank for two licenses in order to become a payment gateway and POS operator in the country. SUNPAY has managed to collect 13 million birr paid up capital and 87 million birr in subscribed capital, which bring the sum total to 100 million birr of which the minimum per value of each share is set at 1000 birr.
During the General Assembly of shareholders held at Marriott International Hotel on March 25, 2021, the shareholders reviewed the progress made and discussed directions and steps to be taken moving forward to make SUNPAY a reality in time. Under Sunpay, the Sunshine group is planning to start new products including the E-commerce, ride and delivery services.
Whilst at the press conference, Etsub Alemayehu, SUNPAY solutions representative highlighted, “we are excited about joining the growing retail payment sector and we believe it is the right time to do so in light of the Governments 10 years development plan which envisions to make the nation an African beacon of growth with the digitization of services provisions and accelerating growth in the fintech industry of the country.”
“Ethiopia is striving to adopt sunpay solutions to modernize the financial system. We are excited to join the industry where sunpay solutions could address many challenges in accessing financial services. The private sector, like Sunpay solutions, can play a paramount role in the Ethiopian economy is accelerating the rate of fintech adoption in the financial sector,” he further remarked.
This digital disruption comes in light of the National Bank of Ethiopia approving a directive to License and authorize the Payment Instrument Issuers which gives prominence to innovative payment instruments which NBE believes is important to increase the use of financial services. The development allows any qualifying business to offer basic financial transaction services, which under a standard license covers saving, credit, insurance and pension products, including cash-in and -out; domestic remittances; bill payments; retail payments; over the counter transactions; and inward international remittances.
With an expected launch of service in July this year, Sunpay solution is said to acquire local and international cards including visa, master card UPI, mobile payments bill payments, CNP and internet payment, card issuance and personalization, ATM and POS driving services.
SunPay gears to join the FinTech space
Total Ethiopia’s solidarity in the pandemic
In its continuous support through its corporate social responsibility, Total Ethiopia has donated 80,000 Paris made gloves to the Ministry of Health to support the fight against the global pandemic, COVID 19.
On Thursday March 25, 2021, Total Ethiopia handed over the high quality gloves to the ministry to which Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health, received the total’s gift on behalf of the ministry from Thibault Leasure, managing director of Total Ethiopia.
According to the company, the packs of gloves cost about 800,000 birr. Lia Tadesse to this regard appreciated the support offered by Total during this critical times and commended the work that the firm is doing in Ethiopia.
“My great appreciation to Total Ethiopia for donating surgical gloves worth 800,000 birr today and in their support in many ways throughout the year during the COVID-19 emergency response to help against the country’s fight against the pandemic,” stated the Minister.
Total Ethiopia, in its corporate social responsibility program has taken various pragmatic and targeted actions as part of the national effort to fight the spread of the COVID-19.
ECA and its partners urged to continue supporting Africa’s efforts to beat COVID-19
African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development have unanimously called on the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its development partners to spearhead and support efforts that are important for Africa’s economic growth to rebound in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement adopted at the end of the 53rd session of the Economic Commission for Africa’s Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the ministers commended the ECA and its partners for providing African countries with a platform to discuss several debt initiatives, such as the Group of 20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and sovereign debt restructuring, to enhance member States’ access to finance to effectively respond to the pandemic.
The ECA has been advocating for the extension of the DSSI to the end of 2021 at least, to ensure countries have enough liquidity to respond and kick-start recovery by freeing up resources to pay for much-need vaccines and improve their buffers. The liquidity and sustainability facility (LSF) is another important vehicle the ECA and its partners have been working on to assist African countries increase liquidity. The think tank has been a leading advocate for a new issuance and re-allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to low- and middle-income countries.
“We express particular concern that the COVID-19 pandemic could heighten debt vulnerabilities of African least developed countries,” read the ministerial statement.
“Five of the six countries in debt distress are African least developed countries and two of the least developed countries have decided to seek debt restructuring under the common framework for debt treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative of the Group of 20.”
“We underline the need to revisit the current system of support for the least developed countries in the lead-up to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, in January 2022, with a view to ensuring that international support measures provide the levels of assistance necessary for the African least developed countries and Haiti to break down the structural barriers to advancement that they face and overcome their vulnerabilities.”
In the statement, the ministers recognized that, before the COVID-19 outbreak, Africa had made considerable progress towards social outcomes, with a reduction in poverty levels in most sub regions, but the pace of poverty reduction has been slow, with gross domestic product per capita growth of 0.5 per cent, lower than the previous two decades, and that this growth trajectory, which has currently been stalled or even reversed due to the pandemic, has not been inclusive, with low job creation.
CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS
Cross-border payment is a term referring to transactions involving individuals, companies, banks or settlement institutions operating in at least two different countries. As the world continues to be a global village, there is always a constant need of transmitting financial transactions across one country to another. One such company that is providing such seamless transactions is Thunes, which enables smart transfer solutions.
Sandra Yao is the SVP Africa for Thunes, responsible for leading the Africa region where she has played a key role in building key partnerships and business opportunities while strategically outlining smarter transfer solutions for cross-border payments.
With 15 years of experience in the payments industry in Africa, Sandra continues to make a positive contribution to shape the industry into a more inclusive ecosystem. Passionate about Cross-Border Payments in Africa’s Landscape.
Previously, Sandra was the Director of New Business Development at The National Bank of Kenya, where she set up two departments for the bank: the Chinese Business department, and the Innovation & Digitization center. Capital linked with Sandra in order to better understand the specifics of running a technological financial firm. Excerpts;
Capital: Please provide a short introduction of Thunes in the African context, and what it offers in the financial space.
Sandra Yao: Established in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Thunes also has offices in London, Shanghai, New York, Dubai and Nairobi, where I head up our Africa region. Thunes operates a global B2B cross-border payments network that enables corporates and financial institutions to move funds seamlessly and provide financial services in emerging markets.
Similarly to how the SWIFT system connects traditional banks, Thunes connects mobile wallet providers, banks, fintech companies, payment platforms and money transfer operators, allowing them to process cross-border payments in a cheaper, faster, more transparent and secure way. Essentially, one connection to Thunes gives you access to our entire network in over 100 countries, as well as our 400 network members.
Capital: What do you feel are the main factors and trends that are leading to the adoption of Fintech?
Sandra Yao: Thus far, I have noticed that the adoption of Fintech is largely driven by market needs. The need for cutting-edge technology in the financial space is to create solutions for market gaps, solve problems that exist.
There is a strong need for solution providers in cross-border payments to navigate the complexity in the payments landscape, the high cost and slow speeds of sending money across the border, the difficulty in obtaining Central Bank approvals, and the “lack of transparency” by current traditional payments providers.
In addition, with the signing of the Africa Free Trade Agreement, this continent will see billions of dollars’ worth of trade, increasing the demand for ease of payments. Fintech companies like Thunes provide our partners with high efficiency in terms of go-to-market, as well as secure & reliable and compliant payments rails.
Capital: What are the challenges facing the Fintech industry, specifically in Africa?
Sandra Yao: The existing payments ecosystems are fragmented and complex; especially in emerging markets, lack of harmonization among different countries’ regulations. Most of the payment methods lack interoperability – no connection with each other domestically, or to international payment systems. While consumers have a great deal of choice with multiple payment methods like e-wallets, mobile money accounts and bank accounts, most of these payment methods lack interoperability. This can result in slower, more costly, and at times, unreliable ways of moving money, particularly in emerging markets.
Thunes fills these connectivity gaps. Through a single platform, Thunes connects different payment players in more than 100 countries and 60 currencies, providing solutions to complex cross border payments. With our platform, we aim to connect financial technology companies, providers of mobile wallets and payment services, money transfer operators, and banks so both businesses and consumers can easily and conveniently perform transactions domestically and internationally.
Thunes’ focus is to meet market demand by accelerating its network growth and expansion in Africa, Asia and Latin America; to be in more countries, and to go deeper into each country and add more partners, expand product offering which facilitates business payments and collections from and to emerging markets.
Capital: Thunes recently raised $60 million for cross-border payments in emerging markets. Kindly elaborate for us on how Thunes is going to pull together this fragmented ecosystem?
Sandra Yao: Thunes’ differentiating point is its strong focus on emerging markets, with a projected growth opportunity of US$45 trillion. These markets have high barriers to entry, and Thunes has a first-mover advantage in most of these markets.
Thunes also owns the largest partner network, with a strong presence in emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Thunes’ proprietary technology also significantly reduces the time needed and the amount of transaction fees partners need to pay. The platform provides real-time payments processing in real-time in-house, with upfront costs and no hidden fees or intermediaries involved. It is also cloud-based and fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations. The platform also undergoes rigorous and real-time compliance screening and boasts advanced capabilities in transaction monitoring and cutting-edge technology to combat money laundering, fraud and other financial crimes.
The Series B funding will be used to drive the continued development of Thunes’ global network and accelerate its expansion and growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In addition, the company will work to increase product offerings and continue developing more solutions, increase transaction volumes, increase the number of countries they are in and in existing countries, to add more partners to their network.
One of the unique innovations that Thunes offers for African clients is the PayPal – MPESA integration. This is the first collaboration PayPal has with a non-banking institution that connects mobile wallets within the region and across countries for convenient, fast cross-border transactions at lower costs.
With this service, users in Kenya can seamlessly move money between their M-PESA and PayPal accounts, making it easy for consumers and businesses to access global e-commerce via the largest cross-border payments network in the world
In 2020, Thunes also opened over 40 new intra-Africa transactional corridors to facilitate money transfers across African countries at lower rates.
Capital: Can you explain to us how Thunes’ technology is helping advance other financial companies or the industry as a whole?
Sandra Yao: Thunes network can be used for companies who want to get paid, collect a payment, or pay someone.
The underlying transaction can contain a business payment, a consumer payment. For example – Grab uses Thunes’ platform to move money; instantly paying their drivers across SEA daily. About 5 billion people and businesses in emerging markets have become more and more connected to each other and there is growing trade amongst countries. Thunes network solves the cross border payment flows – making it seamless and instant at a better rate.
Thunes is not disintermediating anyone here, they are building something that simply does not exist.
