MFS Africa acquires Beyonic to expand cross-border digital payments for SMEs
Pan-African cross-border payments leader, MFS Africa, has announced its acquisition of Beyonic, a digital payments management provider of business services for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), fintechs, and social impact entities across Africa.
MFS Africa, the continent’s largest digital payments hub, connects more than 200 million mobile wallets on the continent through one API.
Meanwhile, Beyonic focuses on domestic payments and collections coupled with secure front-end business functionality.
This deal, which is subject to regulatory approval by the Fair Competition Commission in Tanzania, will provide the growing micro, small, and medium enterprise segment across Africa with the ability to manage digital transactions with individuals and businesses around the world, MFS Africa said on Tuesday.
“Africa has a strong base of connected young entrepreneurs and business people who are bringing fresh ideas to the table, in order to create prosperity for themselves and for their communities on the continent,” said Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa.
He said “With the MFS Africa Hub, we have been creating new digital pathways between mobile money users in Africa and the global economy.
“With the acquisition of Beyonic, we can now put this digital payment network at the service of those entrepreneurs whether they are SMEs, fintechs, or social impact organisations.
By combining MFS Africa’s and Beyonic’s assets and capabilities, we can unleash the wealth of opportunity that business within Africa and with Africa presents to the wider world.”
The company further stated that extended access and functionality will become available to customers of both organisations in the second half of 2020.
In practice, this means that a Uganda-based organisation that uses Beyonic to manage digital payments to and from Ugandan mobile wallets and bank accounts will be able to reach additional markets directly and seamlessly using the same interface, leveraging the pan-African and global connections of the MFS Africa Hub.
Luke Kyohere, founder, executive chairman, and CTO of Beyonic, said, “MFS Africa’s mission to make borders matter less in digital payments aligns perfectly with Beyonic’s vision of helping enterprises deliver fast, affordable fintech solutions to the last mile, where they are needed the most.
“Together, we will give our customers access to the broadest and deepest digital payment network in Africa.”
Kyohere continued expressing happiness about the possibilities the partnership brings, “especially when you factor in MFS Africa’s recent partnership with Visa, enabling them to issue Visa payment credentials across their pan-African networks. It is a new dawn for SMEs in Africa.”
According to the World Bank, SMEs contribute up to 40n per cent of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.
However, they face a number of growth constraints in emerging markets, including the ability to scale operations domestically, continentally, and internationally.
The new product offerings enabled by this acquisition will resolve some of these issues by enabling organisations to transfer funds securely and transparently across regions, MFS Africa believes.