Copia Global, the leading ecommerce/fintech platform for African mass market consumers, and Visa, a global leader in digital payments, have announced a strategic partnership to provide digital financial services to middle to low-income consumers in Kenya.  The 5-year partnership enhances Copia’s digital capabilities and expands Visa’s reach to the final global frontier.  

The partnership between Copia and Visa will include a digital wallet that brings together shopping and financial services into one user-friendly platform.  The Copia super-app enables consumers to not only shop and pay but also to save and borrow.  

Customers will be able to fund their digital wallets, shop for household goods, pay in flexible ways and access additional financial services such as “Buy Now Pay Later” credit, “Save Now Buy Later” savings, build a credit score, and benefit from Visa’s loyalty solutions. 

Additionally, the Visa partnership will enable diaspora natives to remit funds directly into the Copia wallet for purchases of essential goods and services back home.

The digital payments market is currently experiencing a surge in growth, driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones. Smartphones were first introduced to the market in 2010 but have remained largely unaffordable to mass market consumers until now.  But as the cost of smartphones and the cost of data have fallen precipitously in the last few years, lower income consumers are adopting smartphones in significant numbers*.  This is transformative: more than 73% of Copia’s middle and low-income consumers now own smartphones, a leap from less than 10% a decade ago**.  

The digital wave is also evidenced in Copia agents, nearly all of whom were using offline (text-based) ordering at the end of 2022 and now 80% of them fully use the Copia app just one year later. 

“The partnership and rapid digitization of customers creates a huge opportunity for Copia and Visa to bank the unbanked with previously inaccessible financial services, solving financial inclusion for the mass market in Africa.” said Evelyn Wangari, Director Financial Services, Copia Global.  

“Copia’s ecommerce platform provides the perfect springboard for Visa to bring financial services to the mass market. Copia’s network of customers, agents and delivery sub-contractors will benefit from Visa’s capabilities on contactless payments, remittances, and loyalty solutions, said Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, Visa Kenya Country Manager. 

 “Our partnership with Visa will impact millions of lives by providing unparalleled access to digital financial services and fulfills Copia’s ambition to be a one-stop shop for all underserved customers in Africa” said Tim Steel, Copia’s CEO. 

  This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both companies and will reshape the global landscape of digital financial services.

*The cost of entry level smartphones available in the Kenyan market has dropped from an average $86 in 2019 to less than $40 today.  Even more importantly is the “usage gap” whereby low-income consumers might own a smartphone but cannot afford mobile internet data.  The cost of data is also falling rapidly from $2.25 per gigabyte in 2019 to $0.59 today which is driving up mobile internet usage. [How Kenya’s Average Cost of 1GB Mobile Data Compares to the Rest of the World, TechTrendsKE, April 19, 2021.  Worldwide mobile data pricing: the cost of 1GB of mobile data in 2037 countries, Cable.co.uk Sept 2023]

**Kantar East Africa 2023