Carbon, a fintech in Nigeria, has signed a five year deal with Visa to scale payments across Africa. Carbon, a formal digital lending company, now turned digital bank, will be looking to leverage the partnership to supply both physical and digital Visa issuance of Visa cards to its clients.
“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.” Visa West Africa vice president Kemi Okusanya
The partnership between both parties is a symbiotic one. While Carbon's customer base uses Visa cards, Visa will provide financial support to Carbon, which spans the five-year partnership period. Carbon will be looking to launch Visa cards in the third quarter of 2021 and utilize an instant issuance process in three key markets: Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.
“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.” Carbon CEO and co-founder Chijioke Dozie
The digital bank will deploy the funds from the partnership to provide implementation and marketing support to further growth and adaption of Visa’s payment solutions across its products.
Carbon reported strong growth in the 2020 fiscal year. It processed approximately $241.35m (NGN96.54bn) in payments and roughly $63m (NGN25.21bn) in loan disbursements. The company also has a buy now pay later product called Carbon Zero.
Nigeria in focus
GDP: $432.294 billion compared to Kenya's $98.843 billion in 2020
Population: 206,139,587 compared to Kenya's 53,771,300 in 2020
GDP per capita: $2,097 compared to Kenya's $1,838 in 2020
