EMQ Expands Global Reach into Africa

Providing customers globally with direct access to millions of mobile wallets across the world’s second largest continent

HONG KONG & DUBAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EMQ, a global financial settlement network, today announced its footprint expansion into Africa, offering customers from around the world secure, affordable and real-time cross-border settlements across multiple markets in the continent. Connecting EMQ’s global network to Africa provides greater access to the rapidly growing digital financial services across the region.

“Africa is one of the most important strategic growth markets for EMQ with a thriving mobile economy estimated to reach US$185 billion in 2023 in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is driven by a new generation of technophiles across the continent¹. And yet the cost of sending money to Africa remains the highest in the world at 9.3 percent²,” said Max Liu, co-founder and CEO of EMQ. “Our new African gateway bridges the gap in making financial services more accessible and affordable by offering real-time payment capabilities for our global senders, including the over 30 million Africans living outside of their home countries.”

Powered by EMQ’s global financial settlement network, customers from around the world can seamlessly transfer money directly back home within minutes to 18 countries, including some of the largest and most dynamic countries in the world - Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Kenya. This will create a more inclusive economy with greater access to digital financial services for a region where only 43% of the population have access to financial services³.

“This is an exciting milestone for EMQ as we continue to invest in our network infrastructure and strengthen our compliance capabilities across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to deliver innovative financial services in the region,” Liu added.

The expansion to Africa follows a series of launches to bolster EMQ’s network infrastructure globally, which currently spans across Europe, U.K., Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines. In the second quarter of 2020, the company plans to expand across the Americas.

About EMQ

EMQ operates a global financial settlement network that provides a faster, more affordable and transparent cross-border settlement solution for businesses around the world, while adhering to complex regulations and compliance standards in different markets. The company’s flexible network infrastructure has been built to effectively settle any cross-border movement of capital and can be deployed across multiple vertical industries for a broad range of services, including e-commerce, merchant settlement, procurement, remittance, payroll, etc. www.emq.com.

¹ GSMA, The Mobile Economy SSA, 2019

² World Bank Group, Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook report, April 2019.

³ World Bank. Digital Access: The future of Financial Inclusion in Africa. 2018