фото показано с : blokt.com

The Japan-based SBI Remit has recently announced its collaboration with BitPesa for utilizing the latter’s digital treasury management solution to enable convenient transactions between Japanese merchants and African countries.

Incorporated in Kenya, BitPesa makes use of the Bitcoin blockchain to facilitate cross-border payments and to mitigate remittance costs while increasing transaction processing speed at the same time. Traditional cross-border payments for goods in Africa require conversions to more liquid currencies like the EUR or USD. This process can be extremely slow and expensive as many intermediaries (banks) get involved, which creates a condition that Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO of BitPesa, describes as “not a small problem within the African continent.”

According to Forbes, the World Bank has estimated that the average remittance fees for such process can frequently exceed 7% of the total transaction costs before funds can reach a merchant. BitPesa comes to optimize this cumbersome process and lower remittance costs to only 3% by creating new currency pairs where Africans will be able to pay directly, while the instant execution of transactions will be guaranteed by distributed ledger technology. Namely, the BitPesa platform supports the fiat currencies of Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all of them paired with the Japanese Yen.

Currently, there are more than 400 Japanese merchants active on the African continent competing in industries such as cosmetics, electronics, and used cars. This partnership between SBI Remit and Bitpesa aims to develop bilaterally beneficial commerce between the two parties.

Commenting on the partnership, Rossiello said:

“While there is a growing interest in Africa, there is still a lot of hesitation due to market conditions and lack of hybrid financial infrastructure to support agile growth of businesses. Through our partnership with SBI Remit, we have created a secure, fast and easy-to-use forex solution for Japanese companies to buy and sell eight frontier market currencies with G20 currencies including Japanese Yen. Businesses can do this instantly from and to all major African bank and mobile money accounts.”

Part of the Japanese Softbank, SBI Remit has previously invested in numerous blockchain-based projects, with its most notable subsidiary being SBI Ripple Asia. The venture was aimed at creating faster remittance channels for banks in Asia, to operate with transparency and effectively cut down costs.

SBI Remit has approximately half a million customer base, which mostly consists of foreigners who send their funds abroad via traditional payment channels. Since its inception in 2010, the company has processed a whopping 500-billion yen worth of transactions, and a significant amount of which was sent to African countries.

BitPesa is fully licensed to operate in the European Economic Area by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, as well as the Bank of Spain.

The partnership with BitPesa, according to the Director of SBI Remit Nobuo Ando, will prove to be vital for the future growth of Japanese businesses in Africa. He further stated:

“Many companies are doing trade with African countries and they are suffering from the high cost and the slow speed and not very precise administration. So, this is the market that we would like to go in, together with BitPesa.”

As per World Bank estimates, Africa represents only a small percentage (6.4%) of the global remittance market, and the alliance’s representatives see this as a major opportunity to establish an ideal payment processor for the emerging countries of the African continent. Lately, many blockchain entrepreneurs seem to be identifying Africa as a friendly region for the development of real-life applications using distributed ledger technology.

SBI Remit Partners With BitPesa to Boost Japanese Commerce in Africa was originally found on [blokt] - Blockchain, Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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