Deji Elumoye in Abuja

An American multinational payment card services corporation, Visa Inc; has updated Vice President Kashim Shettima on plans to site data centre infrastructure in Nigeria.

This is in addition to its investments of over $1 billion in the country, including a substantial technological partnership with MoniePoint to foster digital payment solutions, a $200 million investment in Interswitch, and a partnership with ThriveAgric to empower smallholder farmers and enhance food security in Nigeria.

Visa’s Regional President for Central, & Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA), Mr. Andrew Torre, disclosed this when he led a delegation of the company on a courtesy visit to Vice President Shettima at the State House, Abuja.

Torre said while Visa Inc. “has been making investments and will continue to make these investments in Nigeria”, the plan to site the data centre infrastructure is aimed at bringing new technologies into the Nigerian market that would bolster the nation’s growing digital economy.

According to him, partners like Hugo, and Samsung require some of Visa’s technologies to launch mobile payment services for a more competitive and cost-effective market.

Responding, Vice President Shettima assured the US-based corporation team that the patronage and partnership between Visa and the Nigerian government will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

Shettima also applauded Visa for investing in ThriveAgriculture, noting that the administration of President Bola Tinubu is quite passionate about repositioning the agriculture sector, which is one of the primes in the administration’s 8-point agenda. 

He said, “Nigeria is where the action is. Of the ten fintechs in Africa, about eight are in Nigeria, with Moniepoint as the newest addition. Agriculture is key to the 8-point agenda of the present administration. President Bola Tinubu is really keen on repositioning the agriculture industry here, and we have to invest in technology, we have to invest in modernisation.

“If we must improve on agriculture, we must embrace modernity, improve agricultural prices, seeds, fertilisation, and intermediate technology. ThriveAgriculture is a company that has a focus on food security, providing up-to-date data to our farmers. And be rest assured that the patronage, the partnership between the government of Nigeria and Visa will only grow by leaps and bounds.”

The Vice President urged Visa Inc. to also invest in the Outsource to Nigeria Initiative of the federal government to help facilitate access to finance for the creative sector to boost the nation’s digital and creative economy.