Visa announces the launch of the Africa FinTech Accelerator Program

Visa has announced the launch of the Visa Africa FinTech Accelerator Program. The program is meant to help start-ups within the continent via connections, technology, experience, and investment financing.

Visa Africa FinTech Accelerator Program

Visa’s fintech accelerator program in Africa will have up to 40 startups every year undergo an intensive learning program for three months. This will largely revolve around business growth and mentoring.

Upon completion of the program, Visa intends to make capital investments in selected businesses. This will involve boosting their commercial launch via access to Visa’s capabilities and technology. From July 2023, African startups will be in a position to apply for the program during the two application phases yearly.

In 2022, over 1,000 African fintech startups participated in the VEI (Visa Everywhere Initiative) competition. From that competition, the finalists from different African countries will be invited to the accelerator program.

Speaking about the program, Visa’s Executive Chairman Alfred Kelly stated, “Visa has been increasing our investments in Africa for decades and strengthening partnerships across the continent to support the next wave of innovation and growth. Our new FinTech accelerator will bring experience, connections, and investment to the best FinTech start-ups in Africa so they can grow at scale.”

In December 2022, the payments company pledged to pump $1 billion into the African continent over a span of five years. This will also include scaling its operations in the area as well as heightening its collaborations with fintechs, mobile network operators, governments, merchants, and financial institutions. This in turn will boost new innovations and technologies to deal with challenges experienced in the continent.