Switzerland’s TawiPay, has launched to tackle the excessive fees incurred by migrants sending money overseas, ending the excess fees charged on money transfers by Sub- Saharan African overseas workers of up to 12 percent of the amount sent according to stats from World Bank data.
Even a fair transfer fee of 5%, proposed by independent organizations, would result in an additional US $3 billion inflow of money in the Sub-Saharan African countries. This can be achieved by increasing competition in the transfer services market, and by making the already operating service providers more cost transparent.
François Briod, TawiPay, Co-founder told TechMoran that he teamed up with Seven European entrepreneurs to co-found TawiPay with the objective of closing this unfair cost gap.
According to him, TawiPay is a transparent and easy to use money transfer comparison website, showing users a reliable list of options to send money abroad. TawiPay, is fully independent from existing money transfer services, totally free of charge and has been available to the public since August 20, 2013.
TawiPay aims to decrease remittance fees dramatically and therefore allow more money to arrive abroad. The service is very easy to use and the process consists of just a few simple steps. After inputting the sending and receiving countries, as well as the transfer amount, users can see all established money transfer services, their respective fees and money reception channels on a single page. An emphasis has been made to fully disclose and display all “hidden fees,” so that users can always make an informed decision when choosing the most appropriate service.