[INTERVIEW] Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Zeepay, Ghana

Hi Andrew,

We’re really happy to have you on TechInAfrica, to tell us more about your startup ZeePay and your perspective on the new economy in Ghana.

First of all, can you pitch us your company in just a few sentences?

Zeepay is a mobile money acquiring app, that uses NFC technology to process mobile money transactions at PoS; we have a native app that can be downloaded onto any pos or smart phone to facilitate transactions with value added services such as Bill Pay, Remittances etc

Can you tell us more about yourself, your personal background, your experience and how you went to ZeePay?

I am a banker, and one of the few with their banking experience spanning Transaction, Retail and Corporate Banking as well as Strategy and Business Performance. I have had the opportunity to be part of Retail deployments across Africa both in the East & South and West Africa. I have had the chance to also be part of alot of switch integration projects including Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia and Ghana.

I am very results oriented and driven to the core, I constantly look for ways to improve a situation and solve problems. I had the opportunity to go to school in the UK and USA and returned home to work after that. Zeepay was borne out of my frustrations with card and atm networks not working when you need it the most and yet having mobile money. In my case it was the most ungodly hour at the Grocery store that lead me into this space. Coupled with the fact that middle africa has about 78million mobile wallets that can be acquired, considering that all transactions are predominatly peer to peer

Can you tell us more about Ghana? Why this market?

Ghana is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a stable policitcal and egal environment making it ripe for business. Also Ghana currently has 7million mobile wallets and growing, in our case it took only 10years to reach this number, while it has taken banks 62 years to reach 8.9million bank accounts. Ghana is also considered an active mobile money market and hence the attraction. Although we are Africa and immigrant focused, which means we are looking to operate beyond Africa and also in immigrant hubs around the world. Growth rate is currently estimated to be about 3.7 and planned to reach 5.7 by 2017. The payments ecosystem just took off with the need for cashless being the core of everything

What are the main issues you have been facing with ZeePay in Ghana?

The main issue is really funding, as we have a good product and all often want to come on board. Our challenge really is that banks dont like to pay for integration and therefore making that aspect of the business expensive.

Who are your main competitors around?

Currently we dont have direct competitors, and we work directly with the mobile networks and banks.

What is your point of view, as a startup founder, about Ghana?

Ghana has significant growth opportunities in the payments space, there is also room for alot of cash to be brought into the formal sector from the informal. We see ourselves as a conduit to process all these transactions. Also I anticipate an opportunity where the mobile networks would eventually outsource the processing of their transactions to Zeepay given our strenght and speed.

Is it hard to find investors there?

Very hard to find investors, we raised all our funds locally but under some tight conditions. That is one area that is worth exploring, because I also believe that the tech space is really catching on and there some active start ups out there with viable products

What do you think is lacking to Ghana to develop it more? What are the main barriers?

Investors is core, secondly there is a need for investors to be schooled on the startup space and tends to be lacking, also the few exits are not being announced to encourage companies to fund start ups here. Then we need to look at the investment climate again as well

What is your perspective for the next years on Ghana and more regionally on Africa?

We see growth both Regionally and Africa and we anticipate to conquer the African region within 3years backed by the right partners. We are starting Series A shortly and that would determine alot.

As you know, we are always on the look of great startups, new products and amazing entrepreneurs, could you name a few locally or regionally in Africa?