In recent years, Africa has become a destination for giant technology companies. Multinational corporations and governments have been creating innovation centers to develop new products through collaboration that remain competitive at a global level. The global payments company Visa has opened an Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya.
On April 6, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Dr Patrick Njoroge, officially opened the studio, which was attended by top banks, financial technology companies, and innovation experts from around Sub-Saharan Africa.
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The new facility supports Visa’s commitment to promoting innovation and creating opportunities for clients and fintech partners to co-create market-relevant payment and commerce solutions throughout the region; and will serve the sub-Saharan Africa region and joins a network of innovation centres operated by Visa since 2016, in cities including London, Dubai, and Singapore. The Nairobi studio is the first in Africa and sixth globally.
What Visa Has To Say About The New Studio
Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President and Head of Visa in Sub-Saharan Africa, revealed that the studio would help grow the Visa market in the region by issuing digital and physical Visa to its customers.
According to Diara — “Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing region with a tech-savvy population, and 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 technological 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,” he added.
Visa Previous Engagements in The Africa Tech Spec
Visa has previously used its existing innovation hubs to build products for the African market, such as a partnership with Nigerian Fintech Paga to develop new merchant acceptance solutions based on QR codes and NFC technology.
Last year, Visa partnered with Kenya’s largest telco Safaricom to allow M-Pesa’s 24 million users and 173,000 local merchants to be linked to Visa’s 61 million merchants and its more than 3 billion cards.
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Across Africa, giant tech companies continue to develop in the region. Last month, Microsoft launched a new office in Lagos. It’ll house its product engineering, ecosystem development, and innovation teams. In 2021, Huawei also announced plans to build an innovation and research centre in Tunisia.
Similar innovation studios are operated by companies like Cisco and Philips in Nairobi, and the Kenyan government is building a technology metropolis called Konza City to foster innovation in the country.
The launch of Visa’s first African innovation studio, as well as others, will help to enhance the African tech ecosystem by encouraging the conception, development, and implementation of innovative ideas.
