Visa Inc. V recently introduced the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program to help Africa’s booming start-up community thrive. Simultaneously, the leader in digital payments will also invest across the continent to support the growth prospects of fintech start-ups.
For participating in the three-month comprehensive learning program, the continent’s start-ups need to undergo a two-stage application phase every year, with the procedure for this year starting in July. Every year, 40 start-ups will benefit from the exclusive opportunity to work closely with Visa and gain access to the latter’s cutting-edge technology and solutions suite. Visa will also conduct capital investment in specific participating start-ups as the training program finishes.
Apart from enabling the growth of the start-up businesses, the motive of this accelerator program remains to follow a collaborative approach and launch new innovations and technologies. An upgraded offerings suite might counter the challenges that already prevail in the payment environment of Africa.
This notable endeavor of Visa, which is clearly reflected through the latest move, is intended to infuse greater digitization within the lives of Africans. V’s keen eye on the continent can be attributed to the latter’s flourishing digital economy. This is primarily attributable to increased Internet usage, a rapidly-growing young population and higher usage of smartphones.
For quite some time, Visa has been active in making investments and entering into tie-ups with organizations to drive digital growth throughout Africa.
Some notable measures reflecting Visa’s intensified focus on enhancing the payment ecosystem of Africa are discussed henceforth. It inaugurated the first dedicated Visa Sub-Saharan Africa Innovation Studio in Kenya that offers the latest ambiance for partners and clients to jointly devise advanced payment and commerce solutions. V extended beneficial technologies like Tap to Phone and Visa Direct for enabling the continent’s consumers and merchants to seamlessly make and receive digital payments.
All such initiatives have helped Visa to establish a solid foothold across Africa and capture a significant share of the booming digital payments market of the continent. It has established 10 offices in the continent through which it supports payments in all African countries.
The recent program launch seems to be a timely one as well since Africa remains host to one of the most promising fintech ecosystems of the world. A strong brand name, extensive knowledge base, well-established capabilities, wide payments network and a solid global presence make Visa the partner of choice for fintechs.
Shares of Visa have gained 18.2% in a year, compared with the industry’s 10.6% growth. V currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the Business Services space are RCM Technologies, Inc. RCMT, Huron Consulting Group Inc. HURN and SPS Commerce, Inc. SPSC. While RCM Technologies sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Huron Consulting and SPS Commerce carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The bottom line of RCM Technologies outpaced estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 8.44%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RCMT’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 3.5% from the year-ago reported figure. The consensus mark for RCMT’s 2023 earnings has moved 9.6% north in the past 60 days.
Huron Consulting’s earnings outpaced estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 13.49%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HURN’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 20.4% from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues suggests growth of 11.5% from the prior-year reading. The consensus mark for HURN’s 2023 earnings has moved 2.5% north in the past 60 days.
The bottom line of SPS Commerce outpaced estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 16.43%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SPSC’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 14% from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues suggests growth of 16.9% from the year-ago reported number. The consensus mark for SPSC’s 2023 earnings has moved 0.8% north in the past 60 days.
Shares of Huron Consulting and SPS Commerce have gained 40.6% and 81.1%, respectively, in a year. However, RCM Technologies stock has declined 18.7% in the same time frame.
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