Chipper Cash launches instant US to Uganda money transfers
Globally, this year, businesses have tested turbulent waters. Nonetheless, Chipper Cash, an online cross-border and payment mobile application did not waste the crisis. The three-year-old start-up widened its safety net to accommodate the two largest economies.
Recently, Chipper Cash officially added the competitive U.S to Africa corridor to its portfolio in the Money Transfer business line.
With over four million users, the unicorn has adeptly scaled its market to the west to compete with other industry players like MoneyGram and Western Union. According to the World Bank, the U.S. is responsible for almost 30% of the international remittances to sub-Saharan Africa.
Considering how expensive it is to send money to sub-Saharan Africa (it is the most expensive region to send money globally), Chipper Cash’s role is to offer the “best rates and instant settlement".
“Chipper Cash is offering remittances considerably cheaper than anyone else,” Ham Serunjogi, Chief Executive Officer of the application shared on a phone call. “More important to that is that we are now the first ones that I know honestly to be able to support Africa to the U.S. in terms of sending money.”
For a year, Peter Musisi, a client of the three-year-old startup opines that it offers a faster and easier way to send and receive money compared to other players on the market. “They offer some of the best forex rates for various corridors, cash out from the app is free, I only incur mobile money withdrawal rates if I want to liquidate.”
A robustly competitive market is key to expanding financial access because it drives market players to innovate and expand services to underserved areas and groups. Competition drives technological innovation and reduces the cost of sending money home. Chipper Cash has been instrumental in creating the international network that has made remittance transfers possible.
This follows an earlier launch in May that added the UK to their grid. For some time, business activity majored in seven African Countries - Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Currently, a customer can only receive money from the U.K which is a different story for U.S – two-way money transfer.
Cryptocurrencies are picking up in Africa. African users are responsible for a sizable chunk of transactions that take place on some global crypto-trading platforms.
“Our approach to growing products and adding products is based on what our users find valuable. As you can imagine, crypto is one technology that has been widely adopted in Africa and many emerging markets. So we want to give them the power to access crypto and to be able to buy, hold and sell crypto whenever,” the CEO added.
Chipper Cash recently launched stocks in Uganda after getting licensed by the Capital Markets Authority. The stocks product presents a golden opportunity for Ugandans to buy shares in multimillion-dollar companies like Facebook, Tesla, Google, and many others listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Serunjogi founded Chipper Cash with Maijid Moujaled in 2018 to offer a no-fee peer-to-peer cross-border payment service in Africa via its app. The app is free to download on Google Play for Android users and App Store for iPhone users.
