PayPay Africa is turning a cash economy into a digital one, one wallet and one agent counter at a time.
Nearly 2,000 drivers were moving company cash across Luanda every day. Too much of it never reached the treasury. For Wilson Ganga, Founder and CEO of PayPay Africa, that problem became the starting point for a fintech business. Ganga was running Tupuca, a delivery company he had scaled across Luanda with thousands of drivers collecting cash from customers. “We had nearly 2,000 drivers handling company cash,” he says. “Much of the money never reached the treasury. Drivers always had excuses. I created PayPay to move the business into a digital payment system.”
PayPay now operates a digital wallet offering transfers, QR-code and utility payments, savings products, and international digital subscriptions. “The vision of PayPay is to turn everything into digital payments,” Ganga says. “To try to create a society without cash here in Angola.” Licensed nearly six years ago, PayPay developed instant transfers between banks when interbank settlement could take up to 48 hours. Today, customers can open an account using identification documents without an existing banking relationship, extending digital financial services to people traditionally underserved by banks.
Distribution is central to the company’s next phase. PayPay is expanding an agent network across Angola through partnerships that turn existing outlets into cash-in and cash-out points. For customers outside major urban centers, where internet infrastructure remains a constraint, the model brings financial services closer to communities without requiring a bank branch. PayPay is also broadening the services available through its wallet. Plans include real-time international transfers in partnership with Western Union, Mastercard virtual cards for international payments, transfer corridors across the SADC region, and wider domestic real-time payments. Microcredit is already being offered to Luanda taxi drivers, allowing them to borrow and repay through the wallet. “You’ll be able to have a virtual card to pay for everything you need abroad,” Ganga says. “You’ll be able to send money to all parts of the world, on time.”
What began as a solution to one company’s cash problem is evolving into a broader financial platform, with PayPay positioning digital distribution as a route to bringing more Angolans into the formal financial system.
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Produced independently of the TIME Africa newsroom by Penresa.