Bitcoin remittance startup, BitPesa is deepening its operations in Ghana in its bid to continue expanding its footprint in the West African sub region.
Chief Executive Officer of BitPesa, Elizabeth Rossiello says she has found the Ghanaian market exciting and is ready to enhance the payment systems in here.
“We are really excited to be here in Ghana where we did a pilot two years ago and where technology drives many things,”
The platform enables Ghanaians to make low-cost global payments using the local currency, the cedi.
“We are constantly looking for ways to promote intra-African trade, so we’re very excited about our services in Ghana we are excited about the number of young entrepreneurs we see around and we are here to stay,”
Rossiello reiterated the point that Ghanaians should be allowed to make global payments using the local currency and “we are excited to facilitate this; we will continue to improve service offerings, compliance, and value for our Ghanaian customers.”
BitPesa’s services will make it easier for Ghanaians to make GHS payments that will settle in more than ten currencies, including NGN, UGX, and ZAR. This move shows the company’s dedication “to facilitating intra-Africa trade by increasing the ease and speed of doing business in Ghana”.
Launched in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013, BitPesa, is a digital payment and foreign exchange platform that utilises the Bitcoin blockchain to boost the speed of business payments while lowering the transfer cost to and from frontier markets.
With its best-in-class products and customer service, BitPesa seeks to significantly reduce the cost of payments from Ghana to other markets such as Nigeria, where it already has operations. Ghana was BitPesa’s “natural choice for expansion” since it is the second largest economy in the West African region after Nigeria.
BitPesa’s platform makes it possible for businesses to make payments in multiple currencies and has operations in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, DRC, the UK and Europe. Following the launch, Ghanaian customers will be able to buy and sell bitcoin on the online platform with businesses being able to make payments intra-Africa to Ghanaian mobile accounts. Currently, BitPesa is connected to two mobile networks in Ghana with more services expected to come with time.
The move comes weeks after BitPesa made its acquisition of TransferZero, a leading Madrid-based digital payments company, expanding its footprint in the Caribbean and Latin America markets.