African payments app NALA launches in the EU

By Gloria Methri

NALA, a Tanzanian FinTech company enabling payments to Africa, has expanded its presence in Europe with the addition of 19 new EU nations to its list of send markets.

NALA, which expanded to the UK and USA last year, has seen rapid growth via geographic expansion and product differentiation. The firm’s US launch hosted 6 members of parliament from Tanzania at the event in New York City. The EU expansion is one of many updates to come out of the company, including the launch of NALA For Business and recent integrations with Apple and Google Pay.

NALA is led by Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes, who hails from Tanzania and has been working in African mobile money payments for over 10 years. He built one of the first integrations for mobile money payments for TV subscription services 10 years ago.

Fernandes commented, “The European economy is the third largest in the world, and home to more than a quarter of African migrants. At NALA, our mission is to financially empower Africans across the world. Launching in the EU significantly expands our reach and ability to meaningfully innovate in the African payments space.

“Payments companies have traditionally leaned on market expansion as a primary growth lever, causing them to pursue wider geographic reach rather than added value in their product. At NALA, we are laser-focused on building the payments company that Africans deserve. This has led us to dually push forward on product innovation alongside market expansion,” he added.

NALA is working towards changing the paradigm of financial tools for Africans by providing fair and transparent services to empower people with control over their finances. The app became available for download from most Eurozone countries on December 15 via the App Store or Play Store.

As the organization continues to grow, NALA currently has a few ex-Google and Monzo employees on their team, leading and championing the efforts to scale payments across Africa.