The international subsidiary of the Pan-African banking group, Ecobank, officially launched Rapidtransfer International on Wednesday, November 12. It is a digital payment service between Europe and Africa. The banking group has thus shaken up a landscape that was previously dominated by two American companies. These transfers are very important today in African economies.
The amount of money transfers from the diaspora Origin in sub-Saharan Africa has exceeded the amount of official development assistance in recent years. That was $ 46 billion two years ago, according to the World Bank.
For Ibrahima Diouf, CEO of EcoBank International, it is possible to explain this increase in the transfer flow: “A change between social transfer and investment transfer, and especially real estate investment. 45 billion, it can not be social transfer. A large part of these transfers is also to finance access to real estate, access to education, access to health. ”
Attractive prices
Diasporan therefore currently finances a number of health centers and schools, among other things. In the face of competitors such as the American companies Western Union and Moneygram, Ecobank’s Rapidtransfer wants to significantly reduce the costs of the transfer for its customers.
“We have attractive prices. But the fact that we have access to all African currencies therefore allows us to have moderate costs compared to other of our competitors who come to us to have this opportunity to make the change. This inevitably has consequences for the offer that we can offer our customers, says Guillaume Pambrun, head of Africa Rapidtransfer.
Rapidtransfer International today is only aimed at the African diaspora that is established in Europe. Ecobank will later focus on transfers sent from Canada and the United States to sub-Saharan Africa.
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