Some African fintechs including Flutterwave, Chippercash, Eversend, Busha have suspended their Virtual dollar card service indefinitely. The fintechs sent emails to their customers on Friday notifying them of this service unavailability as from the 17th of July, 2020.
The fintechs all claim this service disruption is due to an update from their card partner.
In an email from Barter by Flutterwave, the company stated that “effective Sunday 17 July 2022, all our Virtual Dollar cards will be unavailable for any transactions and purchases.”
The company advised customers to unlink their Dollar Card(s) for any recurring payments, and replace with another payment method.
African cryptocurrency exchange, Busha, said its Busha card service would be paused as from Monday, 18th of July, 2022 also due to “a result of factors from its card partner,” beyond its control.
Preliminary investigations reveal that some of these fintechs have Union54 as their card partner though the company has not made any official statement.
Founded in 2020 by Perseus Mlambo and Alessandra Martini, Union54 provides an API for any company to issue virtual and physical cards without a bank partner or card processor is a debit card issuing API for fintech and corporates. Based in Zambia, it provides BIN sponsorship, transaction processing, and settlement. The company was spun off from a previous company, ZAZU, a challenger bank launched six years ago.
This is a developing story….
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