Statement from Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and founder of AZA Finance, on the FTX Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing:`
“I was shocked and disappointed to see that FTX named BTC Africa S.A. and other AZA Finance entities in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing today. To be clear: AZA Finance entities are not affected by the FTX bankruptcy, and we are taking steps to correct the erroneous court filings.
AZA Finance is a global payments and foreign exchange fintech. Founded in 2013 as BitPesa, we empower companies worldwide and within Africa to move money, exchange currencies, make payments and settle easily across all major African and G20 currencies (including some digital currencies). AZA Finance is licensed in multiple jurisdictions as a payments provider. We do not hold customer funds and never have. Less than 10% of our transactions across all of our entities are via digital currencies.
Earlier this year, we announced a commercial partnership with FTX Africa to expand web3 in Africa by helping them build regulated, safe and low-cost payments rails, as well as other discussed but not-yet-launched initiatives such as African artist NFT collections.
In doing so, FTX Africa became a customer of AZA Finance, first utilising our stable and efficient infrastructure to pay out to a small number of customers in Africa. However, neither FTX nor any of its associated entities own or control AZA Finance or our entities, including BTC Africa. Our entities are not part of the FTX bankruptcy. In its disorganised haste, FTX erroneously listed our entities in their bankruptcy filing.
For additional clarity, our entities that are not part of the FTX bankruptcy include:
- B Transfer Services Limited UK
- Exchange4Free Limited UK
- BTC Africa SA
- BT Payment Services Ghana Limited
- BT Payment Services Nigeria Limited
- BT Payment Services Uganda Limited/B Transfer Services
- BT Payment Services South Africa PTy
- TransferZero
- B For Transfer Egypt
- B Transfer Services Ltd UAE
- BitPesa Kenya Ltd
- BitPesa Senegal Ltd
- BitPesa South Africa
- BitPesa Tanzania Ltd
- BitPesa Uganda Ltd
- BitPesa RDC SARL
- BTPesa Nigeria Limited
- BTSL Limited Tanzania
- Exchange4Free Seychellen
- Exchange4Free Australia Br.
- Exchange4Free Swiss Br.
- Exchange4Free SouthAfrica Br.
- FinFax Company Limited
These entities are not impacted by the FTX bankruptcy in any way. AZA Finance, our entities and our businesses remain independent and healthy.
AZA Finance is and was one of the first Fintech companies to launch from Nairobi, Kenya – and the first foreign currency exchange globally to also trade crypto to mobile money. Volatility is not something that surprises or affects us. We are sad to see a major brand fail, and we urge all fintechs and financial institutions to adhere to global regulation and industry best practices.”
