Ecobank partners with Xente and Visa to launch virtual, physical business cards

This trailblazing approach was revealed by Ms. Grace Muliisa, the Managing Director of Ecobank Uganda.

She was speaking at the Xente-Visa Card launch powered by Ecobank announcing Ecobank’s partnership with Xente, a financial technology platform, and Visa, a global leader in digital payments, to issue virtual and physical visa business cards across businesses by enabling them make payments to online and offline vendors, disburse money, and manage business expenses.

“Today marks an important chapter in the Payments Space in our country where Ecobank and a Fintech company have come together to improve financial service delivery in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) space,” said Muliisa.

“We believe that the best way to transform financial services in Africa is for Pan-African banks like Ecobank to continually support and collaborate with innovative Fintechs like Xente and other start-ups,” she added.

Left to right: Allan Rwakatunga, Xente’s founder and CEO, Ecobank's MD Grace Muliisa, State Minister in Charge of National Guidance at the Ministry of ICT, Hon Godfrey Kabbyanga Baluku and Morris Rwakakamba the board chairperson for the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA). Pulse

Muliisa said Ecobank started the Ecobank Fintech Challenge about five years ago, this Challenge seeks to identify and partner with Fintechs that are ready to scale and thereby provide them with support and access to opportunities in Ecobank’s 33 African markets.

As a result of contributing to the growth of Pan African Fintech success stories, Muliisa said that the Ecobank Fintech Challenge has seen 46 Fellows admitted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship programme.

“I encourage all Fintechs in Uganda to apply for our current programme through our website or social media platforms so that they can have a chance to win a cash prize of USD50,000 and partner with Ecobank just like Xente,” she noted.

“Xente has been able to attain their Payments License and jointly with Ecobank Uganda and Visa, Launch the Xente VISA Business Card. I wish to congratulate you MD [Allan Rwakatunga, Xente’s founder and CEO] and all the teams from Xente, Visa and Ecobank for working hard to make this a reality,” Muliisa said.

She hailed this as another milestone in the bank’s partnership with Fintechs as Ecobank celebrated Xente as a new partner for the Ecobank Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsorship program.

“In this program, we enable payments for customers on behalf of the merchants / partners we work with – and XENTE is the right fit for us. Xente will support its SME / Corporate clients with Virtual / Physical Cards that are running using our Bank Identification Number (BIN) while we do the backend transaction processing, fraud monitoring and all that ensures your transaction is seamless and secure,” Muliisa emphasised.

Ecobank’s vision

Ecobank’s sweeping and far-reaching vision is to build a world-class pan-African bank and contribute to the economic development and financial integration of Africa.

“Our partnership with Xente to issue the Xente Visa Business Card is a further demonstration of this commitment to Fintechs, SMEs and Corporates in Uganda,” Muliisa said.

She also reiterated Ecobank’s passion for everything Digital Banking as the reason for this partnership.

“Our broader suite of world class digital products includes the Ecobank Mobile Mobile App and Ecobank Online for individual clients, Rafiki, a virtual assistant for individual digital banking, Omni-Lite and Omni-Plus payment solutions for business banking, Rapid transfer for instant cross border remittances to 33 African countries, and a Sandbox that Fintechs like Xente can use to plug into our services using APIs [Application Programming Interface],” she revealed.

APIs, in banking terms, grant secured access to financial services to third-party platforms, helping companies build products around banking services.

“Currently, Ecobank Uganda has enabled E-commerce based financial inclusion for over 300,000 people in Uganda through BIN sponsorship programs with various Partners. Our target is 2 million clients [in the not so distant future],” Muliisa said.

“In our drive to ensure consistently excellent experience for all our customers, we will continue to leverage our Africa region expertise to invest in research and development for financial sector deepening, individual wealth growth, business and economic development in Uganda,” she added.

The State Minister in Charge of National Guidance at the Ministry of ICT, Hon Godfrey Kabbyanga Baluku, was the chief guest at the function and he also praised Ecobank’s visionary contribution to the growth of Uganda’s economy.

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