ANGOLA - Finance
CEO, PayPay Africa
Bio
Wilson Ganga graduated in business administration from the University of Saint Francis. He has extensive experience in marketing and digital business. In 2015, he launched Tupuca with his partners, the first on-demand delivery company in Angola and still the largest. They then worked to create the largest electric taxi fleet in Africa called T’Leva, with almost 4,000 electric cars. He is founder & director of G-Smart Solutions, a digital marketing company, and is working on the development of Paypay Africa, a digital wallet that is changing the way Angolans know payment.
I had two platforms before: Tupuca, an e-commerce delivery for food products and groceries; and T’leva, an Uber-type business where we have thousands of drivers every day, riding around with our personal cash. At the time, there were no online payments or secure payment services, as a result we had many problems with Tupuca and T’leva. Many of our payments were transfers or cash, but it was unsustainable. That is how the idea of PayPay emerged, and after working on it for the last two years, I acquired the license in July 2021, and now we are one of two companies with a license and operating in the market: PayPay and the local mobile company Unitel. We are in competition, but it is healthy and boosting the environment.
People trust me in the market. My reputation in the market has enabled people to automatically trust PayPay. Then, it is also because our service is excellent. With PayPay, rather than having to buy a machine, all they require is their phones. It is much easier paying or receiving money with QR instead of dealing with many other ways. Furthermore, for e-commerce, many companies are now able to put their business online because they finally can receive payments in a secure manner. We have been able to gain the public’s trust because of our excellent service. It takes some time because it is still new, and we have to go through that educational process to raise awareness.
The Angolan community loves its influencers and singers, so to spread awareness of our product we got the best DJ that holds parties that everyone follows. Wherever he goes, PayPay is there. We also have the owner of Coolbets, which targets the European expat community, and a television celebrity woman who is followed by younger women. We target different segments that the community loves, and they help pass the word of PayPay.
I have been extremely fortunate to study in the US and bring back my knowledge and experiences and create more jobs here. In the beginning, we did not have anything, but we just kept knocking on doors for new companies to come in. Five years ago, we found our first investor who invested AOA30 million (USD100,000) at the time. We pumped this moneys into marketing and better services. Just person pumping in AOA30 million Kwanzas added significant value to the market. After one year, another private Angolan businessman, said, “I believe in you,” and invested more funds. Because of all this experience, I have the know-how and can now easily start businesses. I have even personally become a micro investor. Angola is so dependent on oil and diamonds, but it is in fact a creative country. There are not that many start-up companies working like us.
We want to boost financial inclusion and have at least 20 million people here have a PayPay app. Angola is still a third-world country, and we need to focus more on what the country can offer. For us, in the future we will focus on what Angola actually needs, and I am already analyzing the agricultural market. The next government is creating a department just to focus on hunger; however, not many people are going into the agriculture business. Only a small number of real entrepreneurs are actually into this.
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ANGOLA - Economy
Interview
President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Angola-Saudi Arabia (CCIAAS)