Company Visa, the world leader in digital payments, opened this Wednesday (06/04) a new Innovation Studio in Nairobi, in Kenya🇧🇷 The studio is its first site dedicated to innovation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
According to a press release, this facility will serve the sub-Saharan Africa region and join a network of innovation centers operated by Visa since 2016, in cities including Dubai, Singapore and San Francisco.
The facility is designed to replicate the success of Visa's flagship innovation hub, One Market in San Francisco, and provide Visa partners with access to tools that allow them to strengthen their capabilities in developing new solutions.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing region with a tech-savvy population. As we continue to increase the adoption of digital payments in the region, our aspiration is to deepen our collaboration with customers and partners in developing solutions designed around Africa's unique needs.", said Aida Diarra, Visa's senior vice president and head of sub-Saharan Africa.
"We are confident that the innovation studio will continue this legacy and consolidate sub-Saharan Africa's position as a leader in creating ready-made solutions to address our most pressing challenges as a region.”, added Diarra.
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Businesses in sub-Saharan Africa have been leading the way in introducing new payment and receipt methods, leveraging innovative technologies, says Visa. Ideas to expand the growth of emerging payment areas such as Tap to Phone and Pay on Delivery will be explored in the Innovation Studio alongside the continued development of cutting-edge smarter payment solutions that leverage blockchain, Internet of Things, Virtual Reality and biometrics .
The studio will help Visa customers and partners across the continent expand their service offerings. Through a human-centric approach, the studio's immersive environment will also provide customers and partners with tools to overcome some of their biggest business challenges, while uncovering new commercial avenues of opportunity.
Several sub-Saharan African companies have already leveraged the capabilities of Visa's innovation hub, including Paga, which collaborated with Visa to co-create a platform that provides tools for small businesses; and Safaricom on a solution to enable 24 million M-PESA users to transact at Visa merchants and 150.000 M-PESA merchants to accept Visa card payments.
The studio was officially opened by the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Dr. Patrick Njoroge, at an event attended by leading banks, fintech companies and innovation experts from across sub-Saharan Africa.
