How Digital Payment is Helping Western Travellers to Africa

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How Digital Payment is Helping Western Travellers to Africa

Many Western migrants travel to Africa for various reasons. From tourists embarking on wildlife and stunning geographical sceneries to business travellers to workers, more than one million Europeans move to the second largest continent annually.

The degree to which immigrants access financial services has significant implications for achieving their objectives in the foreign land. While away from home, these migrants need proper access to finance to facilitate their activities in Africa and even back home. For example, as a tourist, you will need to make payments for travel tickets, accommodation, food, tour guide services, and any other bill that your activities attract while adventuring Africa. Additionally, you may want to settle bills back home. Business travellers also need remittance services to facilitate their activities and stay in Africa.

Local Fintech Products are not deal with European Migrants

Despite their dire need for access to financial services, western migrants to Africa are less likely to use a wide range of financial services compared to their native counterparts. Factors such as language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of experience with the services of the local financial institutions hinder migrants' access to financial services in Africa. For instance, M-Pesa is the leading mobile money service in Africa. M-Pesa is the leading digital payment method in Kenya that allows users to transfer money and pay for goods and services anytime, anywhere. However, the service offered by telco company Vodafone and Safaricom requires users to have an active registered mobile only works when one has a registered Safaricom SIM card. It works well for the natives considering that Safaricom is the dominant mobile network provider, meaning most mobile users have a Safaricom line. However, foreigners may not enjoy M-Pesa services because many of them may not have the local network provider's SIM card. This case is especially true for tourists who only visit the country for a few days and do not see the need to register for an M-Pesa SIM card.

Additionally, M-Pesa is only available in a few countries, majorly African countries. Therefore, many tourists do not register for mobile phone-based financial services since they cannot use them once they return to their countries. Instead, these foreigners would still stick to using bank cards and other international digital payment services, which may not be as convenient as local digital payment options.

A solution in Interoperable Fintech Products and Services

Mobile payment solutions remain the best approach to solving the lack of access to adequate financial services by travellers and migrants in Africa. Mobile devices are already part of travellers and migrants' lives as they carry them all the time.

There has been significant growth in mobile payment services. However, these services are primarily bound by an individual country market, hence not ideal for travellers and migrants. Therefore, all-inclusive mobile-payment services that support various currencies and multiple financial accounts are needed to resolve this complexity. This is where Chukzy Solutions comes in.

Chukzy financial services for Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

Chukzy is a mobile app that allows users to access financial services anytime, anywhere hence solving the interoperability problem with most Fintech products and services. Western migrants to Africa no longer need to use Swift or Banks to facilitate payments while away from home. The app allows users to send, receive, hold and exchange money in over 70 currencies, or make payments to anywhere as a local. Additionally, it enables users to connect and manage their global finance on one platform. They can receive, keep, exchange, and transfer funds in various currencies. Chukzy also makes cross-border payments more accessible, faster, and cheaper, creating a perfect solution for migrants who manage their finances in Africa and Europe all in one platform.