Interswitch Group launches operations in Tanzania.

Interswitch East Africa CEO Bernard Matthewman (PHOTO: FILE)

NAIROBI, KENYA: Interswitch, the leading integrated digital payments and commerce provider focused on Africa has recently entered the Tanzania market and unveiled its new corporate identity at a Dar esSalaam hotel.

This event marks another phase in Interswitch’s rapid expansion across Africa with operations now in six countries.  

The entry into East Africa follows the completion of the merger with leading East African e-payments provider Paynet Group.  Effectively, Paynet Tanzania now becomes Interswitch.

Interswitch Group hopes to aggressively compete in the payments space in West and East Africa after it officially launched its operations and new East Africa headquarters in Nairobi in October.

Paynet began operations in 2003 and is best known for a number of innovations including linking ATMs with M-PESA in Tanzania (Vodacom M-Pesa) and Kenya (Safaricom-M-Pesa), and driving the adoption of EMV Chip cards across Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. In Kenya, Paynet was also behind the PesaPoint network, which is now an Interswitch brand.  

Following these announcements, Tanzania becomes the sixth country where Interswitch has rebranded its operations in Africa with its new corporate identity seeking to establish uniform brand values and identity across Africa.

Speaking during the launch held at the Hyatt Regency- the Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Interswitch East Africa CEO Bernard Matthewman said the launch of the new brand in Tanzania was a statement of Interswitch’s leading position in the market and reflects its ambition to continue to grow its world class service across the African continent.

During the event, Interswitch also announced the launch of Verve, an exciting new card and payment scheme offered by Verve International, an Interswitch Group company.

Verve is the biggest payment card brand in Nigeria with more than 30 million payment tokens, and is rapidly expanding issuance and acceptance across the African continent and is now issued by over 40 banks in Africa. The launch of the card now expands Verve card operations into Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan and Rwanda with integration into existing operations in Uganda. 

Richard Coate, Verve International Regional head in East Africa said:

“We are seeing rapidly expanding trade flows between East and West Africa and with that increased travel. Expansion of Verve acceptance across Africa and around the world is part of the long-term strategic vision for our business. It will also foster closer business partnerships between East and West Africa and improve the ease of doing business on the continent, thereby encouraging even stronger growth. We have created Africa’s first truly global payment card brand and an important symbol of Africa’s economic power.”

Since being founded in 2002, Interswitch has grown rapidly and consistently, resulting in a current transaction volume of 350 million transactions per month and more than US$ 32 billion a year across its platforms.  Interswitch runs one of Africa’s leading payment card brand ‘Verve’ and Nigeria’s largest online payment portal ‘Quickteller’.  The e-commerce industry market leader recorded revenue growth of 1226 percent in the last five years and is ranked the fastest growing tech company in Africa according to Deloitte.

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