UDig’s Innovation Studio was engaged to replace an aging and out of support Google Search Appliance used by medical professionals to find critical information, often in the midst of a medical crisis. One of those projects actually saved lives. Now, we’ve grown tremendously and delivered on really cool work for our clients. It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, we were launching our studio with a couple of consultants. The launch of Visa’s first African innovation studio and others serves as a boost to the African tech ecosystem as it’ll encourage the creation, development, and implementation of novel ideas.This week, UDig celebrated the 1st birthday of our Innovation Studio. In Kenya, organisations such as Cisco and Philips also run similar innovation studios in Nairobi, while the Kenyan government is building a technology city, Konza City, to drive innovation in the country. In 2021, Huawei also announced its intention to build an innovation and research centre in Tunisia. Last month, Microsoft launched a new office for its African Development Centre in Lagos, it’ll house the company’s product engineering, ecosystem development and innovation teams. Last year, Visa partnered with Kenya’s largest telco Safaricom to allow M-Pesa’s 24 million users and 173,000 local merchants to be linked to Visa’s 61 million merchants and its more than 3 billion cards.Īcross Africa, local and multinational corporations, as well as governments, have been launching innovation centres as a means to develop new products through collaborations and to remain globally competitive. Tayo Oviosu on Paga’s evolution after 13 years and $10bn in payments processed Visa has previously used its existing innovation hubs to design products for the African market, including a collaboration with Nigerian Fintech Paga to develop new merchant acceptance solutions involving QR codes and NFC technology. We are confident that the innovation studio will continue that legacy and cement Sub-Saharan Africa’s position as a leader in creating out-of-the-box solutions to deal with our most pressing challenges as a region.” “As a brand built on technology, Visa has driven the major technology advancements that make electronic payments what they are today. “Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing region with a tech-savvy population and as we continue to grow digital payments adoption in the region, our aspiration is to deepen our collaboration with clients and partners in developing solutions that are designed around the unique needs of Africa,” said Diarra.Ī photo of the corner fabrics section at the Visa Innovation studio in Nairobi The new facility supports Visa’s commitment to promoting innovation and creating opportunities for clients and fintech partners to co-create market-relevant payment and commerce solutions throughout the region.Īida Diarra, Senior vice president and head of Visa in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the studio will assist in increasing the Visa market in the region by issuing digital and physical Visa to its clients. The Nairobi studio is the first in Africa and sixth globally.
This facility will serve the sub-Saharan Africa region and joins a network of innovation centers operated by Visa since 2016, in cities including London, Dubai and Singapore.
The studio was officially opened by the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Dr Patrick Njoroge on April 6, at an event attended by leading banks, financial technology companies and innovation specialists from across Sub-Saharan Africa. Global payments company Visa has opened a new Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya.
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