E-Settlement (E-SL), a Nigerian fintech group of companies, has acquired QuickCash, an Ivorian electronic payment and money transfer company, to expand and boost last-mile access to financial services in Francophone African countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo and more.
E-SL said this deal will extend its payment service footprint across the continent and grow the group’s agent banking network to 200,000 agents by the end of 2022.
“QuickCash is deepening access for agricultural-dominated areas, rural populations, the underbanked and unbanked: the disproportionately financially excluded. We are very excited to join forces with a game-changing provider that aligns with our mission and purpose and is committed to unlocking potential and prosperity among the underserved,” Olaoluwa Awojoodu, CEO at E-Settlement, said. “At E-SL, we want to empower all by accelerating access to payments, financial services, and jobs. We are confident that our expansion plan for QuickCash will support the company’s long-term growth and enhance our collective ability to deliver positive impact to many more.”
E-SL was founded to provide easy-to-use and affordable financial services that help in promoting financial inclusion. It does this through its pioneering payment products like CashEnvoy, the mobile point of sale (MPOS) solution PayPad, and the transformational agent banking platform, PayCentre.
The newly acquired company, QuickCash, was founded in 2010 to provide innovative, simple, and accessible products that extend the reach of financial services to underserved populations, particularly those living within rural areas with less frequent access to electricity or mobile phone connectivity.
Patricia Zoundi Yao, CEO at QuickCash believes that E-SL has the “right vision and deep expertise” to drive QuickCash’s geographic expansion and next stage of growth. “E-SL is a leading payment services provider with a strong position in Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem. The success story of agency banking in Nigeria cannot be told without E-SL, and this makes them the best fit to build on the success we have achieved so far,” she concluded.
Although the specifics of the deal was not disclosed, QuickCash will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of the E-SL group and leverage E-SL’s robust technical expertise and deep sector knowledge to strengthen its agency infrastructure.
