Zone (formerly Appzone), which is Africa’s first controlled blockchain network for payments, was named one of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies 2023 by the Financial Times. It is the first blockchain company in Africa and one of the few Nigerian fintechs to make this list.
The Fastest Growing Companies in Africa award is given each year by the Financial Times and Statista. It is a list of the best private companies in Africa. It honours companies that have grown quickly and made important contributions to their fields.
Zone will be one of only 100 companies and the first blockchain company in the entire continent to appear on this list after a rigorous process of reviewing entries from hundreds of African companies.
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FT/Statista Awards
Zone Co-Founder and CEO Obi Emetarom said, “This award from the Financial Times and Statista means a lot to us.” The team is also thinking about how to use blockchain to link any place where money is kept.
“By fulfilling our purpose, we are establishing the groundwork for a cashless world, increasing financial services, and creating a more inclusive and prosperous Africa.”
Zone Vice President of Marketing, Olayiwola Osoba, said something about the award. He thinks that the award shows that the company is committed to building a strong payment system in Africa. He says:
Zone is thrilled that the Financial Times and Statista have named it one of the fastest-growing companies in Africa. Africa’s payment landscape is changing thanks to the creative design and great tech stack of our team. As we celebrate this milestone, we are still dedicated to making payments in Africa and elsewhere safe, easy, and compatible with everyone.
Zone has made a lot of progress on building its decentralized payment network and joining financial services providers since it changed from a banking as a service provider to a payment infrastructure company in November 2022 and got a payment switching license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Zone is building a world where digital payments are seamless, don’t have borders, and work with all kinds of money and money stores. Over 20 of Africa’s biggest commercial banks, fintechs, and OFIs are connected to its Layer 1 blockchain network.
Zone’s accomplishment
Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom, and Wale Onawunmi started Appzone in 2008. At first, they worked with commercial banks to make custom software. In 2020, it would change into a service that helps banks automate their loan operations from beginning to end and switches between blockchains.
The Financial Times says that Zone is Africa’s blockchain company with the fastest growth.
The Nigerian company that makes fintech software changed its name to “Zone” last year. Zone is a regulated blockchain payment infrastructure business. In line with the new name, the company built Africa’s first layer-1 blockchain network, which lets financial service providers around the world accept funds and digital currencies.
Obi Emetarom, co-founder and CEO of Zone, said about the rebranding that the company is now using the power of blockchain technology to make payments “reliable, frictionless, and universally interoperable.”
“By doing this, we are building one global network that will allow anyone to be paid in any way and in any currency. This will make it easier for people to get money and will help Africa and the rest of the world grow economically faster.”
In an exclusive interview earlier this year, the company’s co-founder and CEO said that the company changed its name to “become the first pure-play payment infrastructure provider, focusing solely on connecting banks and fintechs and opening up APIs for other financial service providers to process transactions.” This is what the company did in order to “deliver high-quality payment services on a large scale.”
The Financial Times named the company the first blockchain financial platform to make the list of Africa’s fastest-growing companies. This shows that the company is doing a good job of helping Africans and people in other parts of the world.