UnionPay International Partners with Interswitch East Africa (Kenya) Ltd to Accelerate Payment Digitalization
2020-09-09
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.
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