In a bid to boost Africa’s gig and reduce interoperability challenges, leading digital payment service, Visa has announced that it is collaborating with the Bantu Blockchain Foundation (Bantu), custodians of the Bantu Blockchain Network infrastructure.
According to Visa, the collaboration is meant to connect its digital asset-linked Visa cards to the Bantu Network Token (XBN), a utility token developed by Bantu to facilitate fast and secure transactions on the Bantu blockchain.
Furthermore, this integration is expected to significantly reduce the current friction and interoperability challenges when making payments within the continent.
This collaboration according to Visa, will be supported by a major Pan-African bank and leading Visa banking identification number (BIN) sponsor and will open up immense opportunities for increased economic activities in Africa, starting with Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and at least six other countries.
Transactions for all digital assets issued on the Bantu blockchain using Bantu’s XBN tokens are expected to settle in two to four seconds for significantly lower network fees.
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Visa also noted that it will be issuing virtual cards in conjunction with a BIN sponsor bank and enabler for the BantuPay wallet — the ecosystem wallet of the Bantu blockchain — to help ease the digital asset-to-fiat on-off ramping process. This means that every verified BantuPay user will have access to Visa cards powered by XBN tokens.
Speaking on the collaboration, Victor Akoma-Philips, the chief operating officer at Bantu said, “At Bantu, we believe that the right technology tools and collaborations applied to the right problem will create large-scale positive social impact. This collaboration with Visa will help to create a new Web3 social impact framework.”
In addition to virtual card integration with the BantuPay wallet, Bantu aims to airdrop $1-billion worth of its XBN utility token during the next five years to support financial education, startups and career development opportunities leveraging Web3, decentralized applications and other blockchain-based innovations at colleges and universities in Africa and historically black colleges and universities in Latin America and the United States.
Carl Manlan, the head of social impact at Visa for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa said, “Visa believes that greater financial knowledge can empower people to better manage their money and improve their quality of life. We are delighted to partner with Bantu to help young people learn the fundamentals of personal finance, including budgeting, saving and responsible spending.”
Visa has also entered an agreement with Bantu to embark on a Practical Money Skills program to educate at least 100,000 young people per quarter regarding key money skills.
Bantu is also joining Visa’s Fast Track Program which makes it quicker and easier for Visa’s fintech partners to build and deliver new commerce experiences on Visa’s payments network. Bantu will be the first Africa-led blockchain infrastructure to enter this strategic partnership.
