Exposes a Web of Debt, Lawsuits, and State Probes
By David Tamakloe & Prince Ahenkorah
On a quiet Friday afternoon in early June, Zeemoney Barbados Limited posted a brief notice on its website: it had applied to the Central Bank of Barbados for approval to voluntarily wind up its operations. Four branches across the island from the Dome Mall in Warrens to Speightstown, Hastings, and the Sheraton Mall Annex were effectively closed.
The news came as little surprise to those tracking the company’s parent, Zeepay Ghana Ltd, one of West Africa’s most celebrated fintech success stories.
But what the Barbados shutdown has revealed is a far more troubling picture: a company drowning in debt, besieged by lawsuits, under the watchful eye of state investigation institutions, and whose founder is said to have amassed a significant property portfolio across Accra and abroad even as his business empire crumbles.
The Central Bank of Barbados suspended Zeemoney’s licence on May 5, citing “materially deepened concerns” about the institution’s financial condition, governance, operational continuity, and regulatory compliance. The suspension was to last until June 4. But before that deadline arrived, the company chose to shut down entirely.
The regulator’s concerns, sources say, were not isolated to the Caribbean. They reflected a systemic fragility that had been building in Zeepay’s Ghanaian operations for years a fragility now laid bare in court documents and investigative files.
On May 29, 2026, just days before the Barbados shutdown, Obsidian Achernar Ltd a Ghanaian company with offices in North Dzorwulu, Accra filed a winding-up petition against Zeepay Ghana Ltd at the Commercial Division of the High Court in Accra. The petition, obtained by The New Republic, alleges an unpaid debt of US$1,223,250.
The dispute dates back to June 2024, when Zeepay entered into a foreign exchange agreement and working capital support arrangement with Obsidian Achernar.
According to court documents, Zeepay became indebted to the petitioner in the aggregate sum of US$2,446,500 and GHS 567,085.72. By March 2025, the parties appeared close to a settlement: Zeepay’s founder and Managing Director, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, proposed paying the debt in two instalments.
The first payment of US1,223,250 fell due on April 30, 2025. It remains unpaid.
In a pattern that creditors say reveals a company in distress, Zeepay eventually paid the cedi component on June 30, 2025, but made no mention of the outstanding dollar amount.
When Obsidian Achernar’s solicitors, TEMPLARS, served a statutory demand on February 16, 2026, giving Zeepay seven days to pay, the deadline came and went with no response.
“The Debtor’s selective payment pattern demonstrates financial distress and an inability to pay all debts,” the petition states.
The matter is now before the High Court. If the petition succeeds, Zeepay will be wound up, a liquidator appointed, and its assets seized and distributed to creditors.
But the Obsidian Achernar case is far from the only legal headache facing Takyi-Appiah and his companies. Multiple other suits are pending in Ghanaian courts, sources familiar with the matter told The New Republic. While details remain under seal, the volume of litigation has prompted alarm among industry watchers and regulators alike.
The company’s troubles have also attracted the attention of state investigation institutions. The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is understood to have taken an interest in Zeepay’s affairs, particularly in relation to payment termination issues with customers that surfaced around the time of the Bank of Ghana’s latest regulatory actions. One source close to the investigations described the situation as “a growing tangle of financial and legal knots.”
EOCO has not publicly commented on the matter. But its involvement signals that the authorities are no longer treating Zeepay’s problems as purely commercial.
As Zeepay’s debts mount and lawsuits multiply, attention has turned to the personal finances of its founder. Andrew Takyi-Appiah, the former PwC and Nestle executive who launched Zeepay in 2014 and built it into one of Africa’s largest cross-border remittance platforms, is said to have acquired multiple properties across Accra’s affluent neighbourhoods as well as assets outside Ghana.
Sources with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The New Republic that Takyi-Appiah’s property portfolio includes residential and commercial real estate in prime locations across the capital. The extent of these holdings, and how they were funded, is now a subject of growing scrutiny.
The timing of the acquisitions coinciding with a period of aggressive expansion for Zeepay has raised questions about the company’s financial discipline and the separation between corporate assets and personal wealth. Neither Takyi-Appiah nor Zeepay has responded to requests for comment on the property portfolio.
The unfolding crisis at Zeepay has sent shockwaves through Ghana’s fintech sector, a industry that has long been celebrated as a beacon of African innovation. Zeepay, after all, had cleared over USD 3 billion across 10 million transactions in 2023, secured partnerships with MoneyGram and Remitly, and won privileged remittance licences from the Bank of Ghana.
But the company’s collapse first in Barbados, now potentially at home has exposed a deeper vulnerability. The business model relied on a “liquidity air-gap”: customers receive funds instantly, while settlement from international corridors takes days. To bridge that gap, Zeepay pre-funded payouts with scarce operational capital, exposing itself to massive risk.
At one point, according to industry sources, Zeepay ran up a GHS 150 million liability with a tier-one settlement bank a debt that triggered a damaging litigation saga and a loss of confidence that has never fully recovered.
The coming events cast dark shadows over Zeepay’s operations. The High Court will hear the winding-up petition in the coming weeks. EOCO’s investigations remain ongoing. And the Barbados shutdown has already triggered a quiet scramble among customers trying to access their funds.
For Takyi-Appiah, the question is no longer whether his empire will survive but what will be left when the dust settles. For Ghana’s fintech sector, the lesson is starker: the same innovation that propelled a generation of startups into global markets is also capable of collapsing under the weight of unchecked ambition, weak regulation, and a founder’s hunger for more.