MFS Africa announces $34mn takeover of Global Technology Partners

MFS Africa, one of the leading digital payments gateways, is about to acquire U.S-based fintech firm Global Technology Partners (GTP) in a $34 million cash-and-shares deal to assist in issuing prepaid cards to the people of Africa.

According to sources close to the move, the acquisition will enable MFS to help hundreds of millions of people in Africa who are not having bank accounts and are rather storing their money in digital wallets or on mobile phones. This is mainly significant as international firms like Amazon and Netflix do not accept such kinds of payments from Africa.

Dare Okoudjou, Founder and CEO of MFS, said that this acquisition would assist in building solutions and helping international platforms that are not capable or ready to build user experience that support mobile.

He also said that MFS has recently collaborated with Spotify to aid the streaming firm in accepting mobile payments from Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa.

Last year, MFS Africa acquired Capricorn Digital that offers users access to several methods using which the payment issues for everyday things could be resolved like flight purchases or utility bills.

During that time, Degbola Abudu, the founder and CEO of Capricorn, said that it was the second major fintech deal in Nigeria, following the $200 million Strip paid for Paystack in 2020.

He further said that the firm is excited to have collaborated with the MFS Africa team as this move will help the firm enlarge its service offerings for SMEs and individuals. It believes that it has hardly seen the market's potential as, at present, only 3% of Nigerian SMEs can access credit products.

Sources cite that Capricorn Digital plans to enlarge its staff of around 90,000 agents in Nigeria, with MFS Africa being the main FinTech interoperability hub in the region, associating with 320 million users.

Source Credit - https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2022/payments-firm-mfs-africa-buys-us-fintech-global-technology-partners/