Interswitch, ACI Worldwide Consolidate Partnership to Drive Payments Modernization across SSA

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, and Interswitch Group, Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, today announced a new frontier in their 20-year old relationship which consolidates Interswitch’s relationship with ACI from reseller to strategic partner status across multiple markets in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

The partnership will enable banks, fintechs and other financial institutions in the region to progressively transform and modernize their payments infrastructure through ACI’s revolutionary Enterprise Payments Platform.

On the back of this partnership, Interswitch will incorporate the full range of payments solutions that form part of the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform into its technology stack, enabling banks and financial institutions across Africa to respond rapidly to regulatory mandates, new competition, and evolving trends in a fast-changing payments landscape.

The ACI Enterprise Payments Platform is an end-to-end payments hub solution for retail and wholesale payments and encompasses all the capabilities of ACI Issuing, ACI Low-Value Real-Time Payments, ACI Acquiring, ATM and Self-Service Banking and ACI Fraud Management. The solution enables banks to future-proof their payments infrastructure and meet new customer demands for all payment types across consumer, merchant and corporate payments.

Interswitch, a strategic partner of ACI for more than 20 years, will offer new innovative products and services in Nigeria and 31 other markets in Sub Saharan Africa where the payments sector is experiencing an unprecedented revolution and is poised to witness significant further growth on the back of a growing young population, increased digitization and progressive regulatory outlook.

“We are thrilled to announce the extension of our long-term partnership with Interswitch,” said Thomas Warsop, President and CEO, ACI Worldwide.“Our flexible, agile and innovative payments software solutions will now be available to banks and financial institutions across the continent. We have committed to a long-term investment in Africa, collaborating with local partners and experts, and are now in a fantastic position to support all stakeholders on their quest for digital transformation and innovation, whilst enabling the resiliency and service quality required by next-generation payment systems.”

“We are excited about our new strategic partnership with ACI Worldwide, which essentially consolidates our 20-year relationship across Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Mitchell Elegbe, Founder/Group Managing Director & CEO at Interswitch.

“With the continued rise in real-time transactions and digital payments, providing sustainable payments infrastructure to support the increased demand in transactions is imperative. Interswitch and ACI are committed to driving digital transformation across Africa via the deployment of relevant digital solutions and innovative infrastructure that optimize business efficiency and drive our customers’ growth and profitability.”