Interswitch Systegra, Africa’s payment technology company and its US-based global partner, ACI Worldwide, has announced plans to raise the first 100 million customers’ bank in Africa.
According to the payment company, the partnership aims at driving financial inclusion and boosting the country’s payment ecosystem.
Jonas Adams, managing director, Interswitch Systegra, while speaking at the ACI Customers’ Day in Lagos themed ‘Driving Modernisation of payment Infrastructure in Africa’, said they are working towards having the first 100 million customer bank in Africa in the next five years.
“We would like to plan with a five-year agenda and currently we have put in place a strategy called ‘Dot Four, Dot Five, Dot Six,’ meaning our intention is to have four Regional presence within five years using six business divisions,” Adams said.
According to the director, having a 100 million customer bank in Africa is possible, adding that it will be an interesting conversation looking on in the next five years where the country will get a first 100 million customer bank.
Similarly, he explained that the ACI Customers’ Day was a way of extending gratitude to the customers for support and patronage, and also a means to help drive stakeholder engagement bonds with its biggest customers, which are the banks, fintechs and the government as well as seek their continued support.
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Brett Stevens, sales director, Africa at ACI Worldwide, said Nigeria remains the biggest market for ACI in the last 20 years, adding that the country remains top of the list in terms of focus for future of payments.
“Nigeria is important to us. It’s not a market that we are opportunistic in. It’s something that we’ve been here in within the switch for 20 years. Nigeria remains top of our list in terms of focus for the future,” he said. “We’re a leader in real-time payments globally. We really firmly believe that Nigeria is where a lot of digital innovations take place. We’re seeing that through our partnership with Interswitch. We firmly believe that the future of payments is going to start here within Nigeria.”
Adams noted that the partnership between Interswitch and ACI Worldwide has existed for 22 years and is only ideal to have them come to Nigeria to engage with the customer on the new trend in the payment ecosystem.
“Today is an event that we have put together just to help us drive our stakeholder engagement bonds, with our biggest customer and do self-index. Also, to show appreciation to our customers on an on-going basis,” he said.
The MD disclosed that Interswitch leads the integrated payments and digital commerce in Africa leveraging the payment technology provided by ACI Worldwide and making it available to almost all the banks in Nigeria since 2001.
He added that apart from Nigeria, Interswitch also uses the technology in countries like Kenya, Uganda, Gambia and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, speaking on the relationship between both partners, and how it benefits the Nigerian payment technology space, Adams added that ACI provides the core technology that drives retail payments, integrating it into a consistent solution that most of the global banks use today.
