UnionPay International (UPI) and Interswitch East Africa (Kenya) Limited announced their partnership today, confirming Interswitch becomes a Third-Party Service Provider (TPSP) for UnionPay International in East Africa.

The partnership supports the vision and mission that enable further payment digitalization across the continent, allowing cardholders and merchants within the region to transact seamlessly and conveniently across various platforms on the global UPI network.

The agreement with Interswitch will facilitate UnionPay card acceptance across ATMs, Points-of-Sale, QR Payments and online payments, thereby consolidating the existing partnership with Interswitch in West Africa, helping to drive wider acceptance on the continent. These initiatives will ultimately enhance the current payment landscape and in turn, improve the lives of the mass markets in Africa.

“UPI and Interswitch East Africa (Kenya) Limited share a mission to provide convenient and secure payment solutions across Africa, and this partnership continues our work to broaden acceptance to cardholders transacting across the region”, said Romana Rajput, Country General Manager – Kenya for Interswitch East Africa, “I look forward to working with the UPI team and am excited for the opportunities this new agreement presents”.

Mitchell Elegbe, Interswitch Group Founder and Chief Executive Officer stated that the new licensing agreement reinforced Interswitch’s focus on achieving broad acceptance. “We are delighted to expand our existing partnership with UPI, this time to East Africa”, Elegbe said. “The region presents great opportunity following significant transformation in recent years with the rapidly increasing adoption of digital technologies. This new agreement is aligned with our vision to make payments a seamless part of everyday life in Africa, and we look forward to consolidating our relationship with the UPI team.”

“This is indeed another milestone for Africa”, said Luping Zhang, General Manager of UnionPay International Africa Branch, “We are committed to promote high-quality digital payments in Africa. Together with Interswitch, we present a powerful solution allowing African businesses to better integrate into the global marketplace”.

Interswitch is a leading technology-driven company focused on the digitization of payments in Africa. Founded in 2002, Interswitch disrupted the traditional cash-based payments value chain by supporting the introduction of electronic payments processing and switching services.

Today, Interswitch is a leading player with critical mass in Africa’s developing financial ecosystem and is active across the payments value chain, providing a full suite of Omni-channel payment solutions. Interswitch’s vision is to make payments a seamless part of everyday life in Africa, and its mission is to create transaction solutions that enable individuals and communities to prosper across Africa. Interswitch’s broad network and robust payments platform have been instrumental to the development of the continent’s payments ecosystem and provide Interswitch with the infrastructure to expand across Africa.

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay’s global business. In partnership with more than 2300 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 179 countries and regions with issuance in 61 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world’s largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.

Today, with over 8.4 billion cards issued in 61 countries and regions, UnionPay is the world’s largest bankcard organisation in terms of card issuance. In the Africa, UnionPay is present in 50 countries, and issues locally in 12 countries. Moreover, UnionPay has launched various innovative payment products in Africa in response to the worldwide digital transformation and financial inclusion.

UnionPay International (UPI), the world’s largest payment network in terms of card issuance, has concluded a strategic partnership with GIMAC (Groupement Interbancaire Monétique de l’Afrique Centrale), through which the two parties will jointly optimize the payment service of UnionPay in the CEMAC zone, comprising of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

As the first step of the partnership, GIMAC has rolled out the ATM acceptance of UnionPay in Cameroon with National Financial Credit Bank (NFC), Union Bank of Cameroon (UBC) and the microfinance institution La Regional. In the next few weeks, three more financial institutions, including one bank and two microfinances will be enabled for UnionPay ATM acceptance in Cameroon. These institutions will have access to a global card network for the first time, both for acquiring and issuing. “The collaboration between UnionPay and GIMAC will effectively assist the region in growing financial inclusion and digital transformation by offering to the population access to an international card and world-class payment network at an affordable cost,” says Mr. Luping Zhang, General Manager for UPI Africa.

The initiative will be followed by the issuance of UnionPay-GIMAC co-branded cards in the territory within this year, as well as the rollout of various innovative payment solutions including contactless payment, online payment, QR code-based payment to accelerate digital transformation in the region.
Mr Valentin MBOZO’O, General Manager of GIMAC commented that they are excited about the opportunities that the UPI partnership holds as it will initially encourage and attract global UnionPay cardholders, to regions that previous was not able to service UnionPay cardholders, and they are looking forward to the deployment of further payment solutions which will serve to support local financial inclusion.

UnionPay International is a subsidiary of China UnionPay acting for the development and support of global businesses of the UnionPay. UnionPay International offers high quality of cross-border payment services, competitive and secured services to cardholders worldwide and ensures convenient and swift local services to an increasing number of merchants and customers of UnionPay cards.

Today, with over 8.4 billion cards issued in 61 countries and regions, UnionPay serves the world’s largest cardholder base. In Africa, UnionPay is present in 50 countries with cards issued locally in 12 countries. Moreover, UnionPay has launched various innovative payment products in Africa in response to the worldwide digital transformation and financial inclusion.

GIMAC is a regional switch of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) which includes 6 countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. GIMAC aims to provide to around 54 local banks a payment infrastructure to process cards transactions and to develop payment services.