NAIROBI, KENYA – The global money transfer and foreign exchange giant has rebranded its African operations as it pursues growth across the continent. The group unveiled the new name on Thursday in Kenya, where African operations are headquartered.
Under the new brand name “Unimoni”, short for “Universal Money”, the company plans to significantly increase its presence over the coming years. As part of its African growth strategy, Unimoni plans to to be present in 14 African markets by the year 2020. Already the company operates in seven African countries, Botswana included, and with further expansions planned, the remittance company announced that it has developed a healthy pipeline of digital payment solutions designed to cater to the specific needs of the African customers.
Promoth Manghat, executive director of Finablr and also Group CEO of UAE Exchange Group, says Unimoni reflects the company’s aspirations to strengthen its global presence and provide a broader spectrum of innovative financial services to its customers.
“Home to some of the fastest growing economies globally, Africa holds tremendous potential and is a critical component of our growth strategy as a group. We will continue to invest in enhancing the breadth of our reach and depth of our operations in the African continent.”
Manghat further said as a group they have targeted $100 million in investments to support the growth and expansion efforts in Africa over the next decade. To achieve this, the brand is also making aggressive investments in customer-focused technology innovations as well as collaborating with ecosystem partners to provide an enhanced service proposition to its customer base.
“As Unimoni, we will facilitate seamless and connected experiences for our customers and pave the way towards sustainable development and inclusive growth of the various African markets.”
The group CEO said with the strategy, Unimoni will look beyond the business agenda to also pursue their social agenda to ensure shared growth between the company and its customers.
Speaking about the future expansion plans for its Africa operations, Allen Semboze, Regional Head Africa, Unimoni, said: “The next few years are going to be very eventful for us at Unimoni, as we set out to achieve our ambitious growth strategy. We are in advanced discussions with various ecosystem partners including Mobile Network Operators and aggregators to develop new money transfer solutions.”
“These services will be available in four of our seven markets in Africa by the second half of 2018. We are also working on developing our digital capabilities including an online remittance platform, a white-label solution for our corporate customers and an online forex solution. While we are adopting a phased approach towards our growth in Africa, all these offerings will be live by 2020 across all our African markets,” he said.
