Verve International, a leading African payment card brand, has announced its official entry into the Kenya market at a launch in Nairobi.
The launch included the announcement of a strategic partnership with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to expand card acceptance and payment services in six key East African markets.
Verve, which is also the biggest payment card brand in Nigeria with more than 30 million payment tokens, is rapidly expanding issuance and acceptance across the African continent and is now issued by over 40 banks in Africa. The launch of the Kenya operation will extend the Verve network into Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan and Rwanda and an integration into existing operations in Uganda.
The launch opens the way for Verve card users to enjoy services in Kenya and key East African markets. Verve also intends to begin issuing branded cards to Kenyan and East African customers in the near term.
Payments provider Paynet group, the pioneers of PesaPoint network of ATMs has transformed to Interswitch East Africa after a successful takeover by the Nigerian company.
Following the deal, Interswitch East Africa is set to launch its money transfer services, verve card and Quickteller used for paying bills and top-up airtime in Kenya.
Paynet started in Kenya in 2003 and is known for a number of innovations including building PesaPoint network of ATMs and agents in Kenya, linking ATMs with Mpesa and driving the adoption of EMV chip cards.
Kenya becomes the second country where interswitch has rebranded its operations, after it unveiled new logo in Nigeria last month seeking to establish uniform brand values and identity across Africa.
Since launching in 2002, interswitch has grown rapidly and consistently, resulting in a current transaction volume of over 350 million transactions per month and more than US$32 billion a year across its platforms.
