Sompo, a Japanese insurance company, has partnered with BitPesa, a pan-African digital payment platform, as part of its bid to increase the company’s global presence.
In a statement posted last November 9, Sompo said its partnership with BitPesa is focused on the “digitalization of global remittance services,” noting: “Using BitPesa’s technology, developed through various experiments in remittances and settlements, we will extend our presence in the international remittance service market and consider the application of this technology to the insurance field.”
The partnership will see Sompo utilize BitPesa’s crypto-enabled fiat remittance services to help the Japanese insurer lower the costs and time it takes for transfer of value around the world.
The news comes weeks after another Japanese player, SBI Remit, teamed up with the pan-African blockchain company to bring distributed ledger to transactions between the two regions. According to Cointelegraph Japan, Sompo Holdings has reportedly invested JPY570 million ($5 million) last week for a 10% stake in BitPesa.
Using BitPesa’s international remittance services, Sompo can extend its existing network to reach a broader customer base. BitPesa, also known as BTC Africa, was launched in 2013. Since its launch, BitPesa has made quite a name for itself, focusing on bringing transparency and liquidity to the African continent with cryptocurrency. The firm has rapidly grown its business by helping small and medium-sized enterprises through international partnerships.
BitPesa has secured venture capital funding from VC firms like Draper VC, Digital Currency Group, and Pantera Capital. The agency has used the funding to develop a global remittance network with BTC as a base currency to improve financial infrastructure involving the growing world, Europe, and the United Kingdom.
The two Japanese financial services companies will help BitPesa to expand its international remittance service. The two agreements with SBI Remit and Sompo Holdings should help customers move money between Japan and African countries without third parties. BitPesa simplifies the process by using blockchain to create new currency pairs between Japanese yen and the fiat currencies of Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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Venture-backed firm BitPesa has partnered with Japan’s remittance service provider SBI Remit to bring cross-border blockchain payments to Africa.
On Monday, CCN reported that the partnership will see the two companies utilizing blockchain technology to make it easier for Africans to buy Japanese products. With the help of blockchain, the companies expect to get rid of challenges accompanying the transfer of funds between African traders and Japanese exporters, resulting in traders enjoying faster cross-border payment transfers with improved efficiency and more stringent security.
The partnership will focus on a number of industries, including used cars, electronics and cosmetics. This is expected to foster strong business ties between Japan and Africa. The partnership will especially benefit the used cars industry—the leading business between the two continents.
According to BitPesa founder and CEO Elizabeth Rossiello, traders stand to gain a lot from this partnership since “they don’t need to do any conversion.” Traders will be able to deposit funds directly to BitPesa’s accounts in their local currencies. Once the funds have been deposited, BitPesa will disperse the funds to their Japanese counterparts at SBI Remit, who will proceed to pay clients.
From this partnership, traders will enjoy easy transfer of funds, lower fees, and they will also not have to deal with currency conversion. Moreover, through the BitPesa and SBI partnership, transactions will be much faster than the two-week duration given to by local banks. It will also reduce the volatility risk that comes with forex conversations.
Enabling cross-border payments will also help open up business between Africa and Japan. The latter will be able to tap directly into BitPesa’s digital exchange platform, which has a presence in Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya. Traders from these countries will now be able to pay for goods from Japan easily.
Asian traders have been finding it hard to launch businesses in Africa due to fund transfer bottlenecks. Transferring funds from local currencies to a G20 currency has not only been time consuming but also expensive. Similarly, even transfer of funds locally within African countries requires the local currency to be converted to a G20 currency to facilitate this transfer.
With the BitPesa platform, Rossiello said the transfers can be done on their platform and would be more affordable and cost effective than conventional approaches. Both companies are optimistic about working together to grow business in Africa and Japan.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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