Visa Inc, a global digital payments giant has opened up its first African innovation studio in Kenya to drive product development across the continent despite that Nigeria is Africa’s startup capital.

This was confirmed from a statement issued by the company and seen by Nairametrics.

The new facility adds to the number of similar labs in Nairobi as Kenyan government double down in its drive to build technology city for innovation in the country.

The studio was officially opened by Dr. Patrick Njoroge, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, at an event attended by leading banks, financial technology companies and innovation specialists from across Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Visa, the new studio (which represents sixth globally) will help Visa clients and partners from across the continent extend their service offerings as well as provide them with tools to overcome challenges.

What Visa is saying

Aida Diarra, senior vice president and head of Visa in Sub-Saharan Africa said “Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing region with a tech-savvy population. As we continue to grow digital payments adoption in the region, our aspiration is to deepen our collaboration with clients and partners in developing solutions that are designed around the unique needs of Africa.”

“As a brand built on technology, Visa has driven the major technology advancements that make electronic payments what they are today. We are confident that the innovation studio will continue that legacy and cement Sub-Saharan Africa’s position as a leader in creating out of the box solutions to deal with our most pressing challenges as a region.” 

What you should know

Visa recently partnered Kenya’s Safaricom to allow the telco’s 150,000 mobile money (M-Pesa) merchants to accept card payments.
Visa has previously used its existing innovation hubs to design products for the African market, including a collaboration with Nigerian Fintech Paga to develop new merchant acceptance solutions involving QR codes and NFC technology.
Lagos, Nigeria’s cultural and commercial center, houses Africa’s startups like Andela; a tech-jobs network company, Flutterwave; a payments company and Jumia; and e-commerce platform.

The post Visa chooses Kenya over Nigeria as it opens first innovation hub appeared first on Nairametrics.