Kenya’s online payments provider for merchants Direct Pay Online Group, (DPO Group) has established a new branch in Bole, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to support its current Ethiopian clients and to further sign up new clients in Ethiopia, Africa’s closed economy.
The DPO Group aims to assist both entrepreneurs and enterprises by providing a seamless and scalable online payment solution for all card and mobile payments regardless of geography, payment type or platform. Ethiopia is the first new branch this year after South Africa, Namibia and Botswana in 2016 after a series of acquisitions.
According to Eran Feinstein, the DPO Group CEO: “We welcome our new employees in Ethiopia and look forward to working with our existing clients and building new relationships. The Horn of Africa market is a key growth area for the Direct Pay Online Group and we are excited about the potential for our business.”
Feinstein said the investment in the new Addis branch validates the strength of the group and supports its vision of building the leading pan-African payment processor. The firm aims to expand its local presence to more than 10 countries across East, West, and Southern Africa this year, and to offer merchant acquiring abilities in 25 countries across the whole continent until the end of 2018.
The DPO Group, launched operations in Kenya in 2006 and quickly expanded to the rest of East Africa. In 2016 it acquired South Africa’s PayGate, a top online payment processor, and in March 2017 expanded operations to Namibia and Botswana, by acquiring 100% of the equity in Virtual Card Service (“VCS”).
The Group serves over 20,000 clients in Africa, including over 50 airlines, thousands of hotels, travel agents, tour operators, e-com players and other sectors. This broad client base has established the DPO Group as the largest player in online payments in Africa. The Group processes payments from all major credit cards, mobile money, bank transfer and e-wallets, and holds the PCI DSS Level 1 Certification, the highest security certification in the payment cards industry.
