Chipper Cash acquires license in Malawi

Chipper Cash, a Pan-African cross-border payment startup, has been granted a license to provide money transfer Value Added Services in Malawi by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).

The license, which took effect on December 23, 2022, was issued in accordance with Section 39 of the East African country’s Communications Act 2016. The license allows the fintech unicorn to enter the Malawian market, which has been marked by regulatory hiccups.

In January, Pan-African pay-TV operator MultiChoice was fined around €93,800 by the MACRA over breaches of its license conditions. Chipper Cash has not yet issued an official statement on the license acquisition, but the news means the company is starting the new year on a positive note, coming weeks after it made headlines for layoffs. Last December, the company reportedly laid off a significant portion of its workforce, with the exact number of affected employees remaining unknown.

Founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, Chipper Cash provides a no-fee peer-to-peer cross-border payment service in Africa via its app. With a self-reported user count of 5 million, the company’s services are used across seven African countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as in the UK and the US.

The company also announced plans last November to acquire Zambian fintech company Zoona Transactions International as part of its expansion strategy into Zambia. The acquisition will also allow Chipper Cash to add new online services and a new agent network to its offerings.