340 300
NALA, a Tanzanian financial technology company, has officially integrated Apple Pay as a source of funds for payments in the United States and United Kingdom to Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana.
This is the first time a Tanzanian company has worked directly with and enabled a global payments service such as Apple Pay.
The move maximizes payout options for NALA’s customers in the US and the UK.
The Tanzanian financial technology company enabling payments from the UK/US to Africa, announces their newest integration to enable seamless payments.
This comes a few months after establishing operations in the United States at the end of April 2022, where 6 members of parliament from Tanzania attended their launch event in New York City.
NALA’s founder and CEO, Benjamin Fernandes hails from Tanzania and has been working in mobile money payments in Africa for over 10 years.
He built one of the first integrations for mobile money payments for TV subscription services 10 years ago.
Fernandes commented, “NALA’s mission is to increase economic opportunities for Africans globally, enabling Apple Pay is a step towards connecting more global payment options with Africa. This reach allows us to build stronger financial infrastructure for Africans worldwide.”
NALA customers in the United States and the United Kingdom can get access to this feature on the NALA app from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
NALA currently can pay out to over 300 banks and 20 mobile money players in Africa.
Despite the litany of options for sending money to Africa from abroad, the continent continues to be the most expensive place to send money.
The World Bank estimates average transfer fees to Africa at ~9%.
Further, many of the existing options include hidden fees that make it hard to discern the true cost of sending money.
NALA is working towards changing the paradigm of financial tools for Africans by providing fair and transparent services to empower people with control over their finances.