Carbon Partners With Visa To Enable Payments Across Africa

Carbon , a fast-rising African Fintech company with a pan-African scope, just recently announced their decision to collaborate with Visa  – a global payments technology company, to offer both digital and physical issuance of Visa Cards to its customers.

Just after a year from evolving from being just a digital lending company to becoming a full-fledged digital bank offering a range of financial services from savings, payments to loans, Carbon is set to partner with Visa to launch debit cards in the 3rd quarter of 2021.

“Carbon is focused on delivering an unparalleled banking experience that is both safe and reliable across all touchpoints… we want more customers to enjoy some of our popular products like Carbon Zero through their Carbon card, and key to achieving this is our partnership with a leading payments and fintech-friendly company like Visa” says Chijioke Dozie, CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon, as he expresses his thoughts on the partnership.

The issuance of Visa cards by Carbon is on a gradual crescendo, as it will start from 3 key African markets -Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana; allowing Carbon customers to enjoy payment functionalities that comes with the ownership of a Visa card.   

The collaboration which is spread through a 5-year partnership period, is inclusive of financial support from Visa, and the funds realized are allotted towards implementing and marketing strategies to hasten the adoption of Visa’s payment solutions through Carbon’s products.

Thanks to this partnership, a lot of growth is in store for Carbon, considering their recent statistics. To start with, Carbon has a customer base of over 650,000 – with the numbers topping every day. In 2020, the company played a part in processing payment transactions to the tune of N96.54 billion ($241.35 million); plus Loan disbursements that summed up to N25.21 billion ($63 million) in spite of the lockdown for the most part of that year caused by the pandemic. Carbon customers who possess a Visa card can now make better use of Carbon Zero – the Company’s “Buy now, Pay later” product, that allows consumers to finance items they need the most but cannot pay for, immediately.

Vice President of Visa in West Africa – Kemi Okusanya shares the sentiment that technology is changing consumer expectation in finance. As she puts it: “The rapid pace of technology innovation has driven a powerful shift in business and consumer expectations in finance. Whether it is changing the way people invest, manage money, receive loans, or send real-time payments to friends and family, Visa is a natural partner for Fintechs including Carbon, providing them with new ways to reach their customers through Visa’s vast network and global scale”.  

There are no doubts regarding the fact that this partnership will augur well for Carbon’s public image, and will activate more ease-of-payment options for people of different demographics.