Carry1st partners with Chipper Cash and PayPal for digital payments across Africa

Carry1st, one of Africa’s leading mobile games publishers, today announced that it has partnered with online payments pioneers PayPal and Chipper Cash, a cross-border payments company recently valued at $2-billion, to enable people across Africa to easily and securely purchase virtual goods and services online.

After these partnerships consumers across Africa can purchase digital essentials in the newly launched Carry1st Shop — from pre-paid electricity and mobile data, assets in their favourite games (like PUBG, ROBLOX, and SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off — which Carry1st recently launched in Africa), and subscriptions to platforms like Xbox Live, Tinder, and Uber.

The integration with Chipper Cash — which represents the newly minted unicorn’s first Network API partnership in Africa — is live in Nigeria ahead of a wider rollout. The partnership with PayPal enables payments everywhere that PayPal is accepted.

Credit card penetration in Africa remains low — comprising 27% of digital payments compared to 92% in the US and UK. But the digital payments sector continues to grow rapidly because of the continent’s massive mobile-first population. This growth has resulted in a fragmented ecosystem, however, with there being  277 mobile wallets, over 500 banks, and several card networks across 55 countries, according to Cellulant.

Carry1st has already partnered with Africa’s leading fintech companies, including Paystack, Safaricom, Cellulant, and many others, to develop and launch Pay1st, a payments orchestration solution that consolidates the most well-adopted methods in six African countries.

Cordel Robbin-Coker, Carry1st CEO and co-founder, commented: “By partnering with PayPal, the world’s largest consumer payments platform, and Chipper Cash, one of the most innovative and fast-growing payment platforms in Africa, we are removing the pain points that consumers face when purchasing virtual goods. In Chipper Cash we have a partner that is perfectly aligned with our passion and dedication to revolutionise payments across Africa through technology and sector expertise, and to help the continent seize the unprecedented opportunities that lie ahead.”

Hasan Luongo, VP of Global Marketing at Chipper, commented: “Carry1st is a remarkable company, blazing new ground in mobile game development and distribution across the African continent. Chipper’s partnership with Carry1st brings together two of the fastest growing technology segments globally in gaming and payments, so that many millions and soon billions more people can enjoy the best games and instantly purchase credits and top-ups in just a few taps.”