Digital Banking App Waya Goes Official & Targets Immigrants

Pre-launch Coverage

Waya, a full-service digital banking, and money transfer app for African immigrants is set to launch in Washington, DC on 16th September 2022.

It will bring a full-service digital banking and money transfer App, focused on the African Diaspora, effectively expanding financial inclusion for Africans living and working in the United States.

Recipients of funds will withdrawtheir money from any bank in Kenya and also through Safaricom’s mobile money transfer platform M-PESA, as reported on Kenya’s  Capital FM News

Post-Launch

Dr. David Wachira, Co-founder and COO of Waya, and former World Bank Finance Specialist noted that in the past year alone, Africans in the diaspora sent over Ksh6 trillion back home. The amount was, however, reduced by KES. 361 billion due to hidden fees and higher foreign exchange rates.

As reported on Nation, Users of the Waya app will open accounts digitally, send money to other Waya users for free, spend using their Waya cards linked to their Waya account and send money to more than 10 countries in Africa. Remittances will be delivered to mobile wallets and bank accounts across Africa.

PYMNTS noted that in some African countries – Nigeria, for example – the market for banking apps could be huge because far more people have mobile devices than bank accounts.

Banking system discrimination against communities of color and low-income communities is already a long-dated reality that has materialized in a variety of ways, including fewer banks in non-white neighborhoods, fewer mortgage approvals, and higher fees when members of these demographics use financial service providers.

Luckily, thanks to the growing adoption of smartphones across demographics and technological advances in banking infrastructure, the barriers, and costs to creating financial services products have fallen, allowing the rise of fintech to change how minorities are treated.

Hempstone Maroria, who serves as the company’s CEO noted that mobile money is one of the biggest African success stories, highlighting that their business also developed a mobile money platform.

The Waya Story

In a wide-ranging interview with the Standard Newspaper, Dr. Wachira and Hempstone Maroria shared the Waya story, and the plans for financial inclusion and enabling efficient money transfer for immigrants.