Chief Executive Officer of Zeepay, Andrew Takyi-Appiah has sworn to make the company the second largest mobile money operator in Ghana by the close of next year, 2021.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Techgh24, he said “by the end of next year we will be a weak number two in the mobile money market then we will begin to target the top.”
He said this is not a matter of whether it is possible or not because they have put all the structures in place to make it happen “and it will happen”.
Currently, MTN Ghana is the overwhelmingly biggest mobile money operator in Ghana, with over 11.6 million wallets, representing about 94% market share. MTN has been on the market for over 10 years, and it reported over 1.8 billion mobile money transactions between January and September 2020 alone.
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Zeepay only got their mobile money license in march this year, after operating as a leading international remittances aggregator for six years, terminating some US$350 million into mobile wallets and electronic cards in Ghana every year.
But Andrew Takyi-Appiah said “we are going after some of MTN’s market share and we have an effective strategy in place to make it happen.”
Strategy
Asked if the idea is to take down MTN, he quickly explained that “you don’t go into business to take competition down in terms of taking their customers, but to become a reliable alternative by targeting market share, not customers.”
He said with a new mobile money platform now, Zeepay is working towards ensuring that all of the international remittances it brings into Ghana, which constitutes over 10% market share, will terminate on Zeepay wallets.
“The other strategy would be to become an alternative wallet for as many existing mobile money wallet holders, whether on MTN, Vodafone or AirtelTigo. You know almost everyone that has a bank account also has an alternative bank account – Zeepay will be that alternative mobile money wallet,” he said.
Investment
The Zeepay Boss argued that the telcos are unable to take some of the huge MTN mobile money market share because they are not investing into the ecosystem like MTN is doing.
He explained that it is all about investing into the right areas which include distribution to drive usage, as well as visibility and branding to driver top of mind awareness.
Science
“But the main key is investment into the science behind the service and that is where we will beat the others and start getting close to MTN,” he said. “Having a science to the program is key to your success – our operations are very data driven and scientific – we work smart.”
He explained that the Zeepay mobile money platform is, for instance, available on three platforms – USSD (available on *270# on all networks), a Mobile App and also on WhatsApp, which were all designed to make it agnostic and less dependent on any of the mobile networks.
“So, the USSD is telco network dependent, so if the network is down the service is down – but the App and WhatsApp are not dependent on any telco network so you can still transact with your Zeepay MoMo wallet once you have data,” he emphasized.
Andrew Takyi-Appiah said even though, at this stage, Zeepay is already a significant market player, it appears the industry players have ignored Zeepay “as if we do not even exist – but that is how we thrive – we do well when we are despised and very soon it will be obvious for all to see.”
Zeepay is on an aggressive demonstration and distribution campaigns across the country – currently, lots of mobile money merchants also operate with Zeepay wallets. Zeepay is already interoperable with all the telcos’ MoMo platforms, on GMoney and is also on the interoperability platform of the Ghana InterBank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS).
The company works with over 40 international money transfer institutions around the world and it is service over 2 million customers in Ghana alone, with foot prints in 30 African countries and a Remittances License in the UK, which gives it access to the whole of Europe.
Recently, Zeepay was adjudged Fintech of the Year at the Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards (GITTA), and its CEO, Andrew Takyi-Appiah also emerged Fintech CEO of the Year at the same event.
