Western Union Launches Money Transfer Partnership With Chipper Cash

Western Union is joining forces with two African FinTechs to provide international money transfer services.

The collaboration, announced Wednesday (July 30), will see Western Union work with Zambia’s Zoona Transactions and its parent company Chipper Cash, letting customers in Zambia send and receive money around the world.

“Zambia’s digitally savvy population of over 20 million is driving a remarkable shift toward mobile-first financial solutions,” said Mohamed Touhami el Ouazzani, Western Union’s regional vice president of Africa.

“Integrating our international money transfer services in the Chipper Cash app means customers can transfer funds across our global network – reliably and with ease. I am delighted then that, together, we are expanding the possibilities for Zambians to connect, transact and thrive in the global economy.”

Zoona is a FinTech and enterprise payments platform acquired by Chipper Cash in 2022 and supporting 5 million customers across Africa, the companies said in a news release. The new partnership lets Chipper Cash app users send and receive funds to loved ones and friends across Western Union’s network of over 200 countries and territories.

“With smartphone adoption on the rise, there’s an increasing appetite for digital financial services that move beyond USSD to deliver richer, app-based experiences,” said Brett Magrath, CEO of Zoona and chief product officer for Chipper Cash.

“This partnership extends the reach of Zambia’s vibrant fintech ecosystem—connecting more users to global financial services through a seamless digital experience.”

Also this week, Western Union said it was  looking to stablecoins and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver efficiencies as it deals with macroeconomic and political uncertainty.

A slowdown in the company’s North America retail business and declining revenue in Iraq drove a 4% drop in revenue in the second quarter, the company said in an earnings release. Western Union’s business in Iraq has been affected for more than a year by sanctions on 14 Iraqi banks.

“We continue to execute against our Evolve 2025 strategy, delivering a respectable quarter despite increased macroeconomic and political uncertainty,” Western Union President and CEO Devin McGranahan said in the release.

The company said in its earnings presentation that it sees opportunities in using stablecoins for remittances, employing the digital currencies to reduce friction and float in cross-border transfers, and providing on-ramps and off-ramps for crypto-fiat conversions.

This reinforces comments by McGranahan last week that the company views stablecoins as an opportunity and not a threat.

He told Bloomberg News that crypto-fiat conversions are an opportunity for Western Union because “last I checked, you couldn’t spend stablecoin if you wanted to buy a Coca Cola.”