Kenswitch-Visa deal heats Kenya payments race; Nigeria's NIBSS in the fray

Kenswitch, Kenya’s national payments switch, announced a partnership with Visa on Thursday to develop next-generation payment infrastructure. The deal aims to modernize Kenya’s fragmented systems into a real-time, interoperable network, as pushed by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Kenswitch, established in 2002, connects over 30 financial institutions and operates a network spanning thousands of ATMs, point-of-sale terminals, and agent banking outlets. Visa will bring global technology—including fraud prevention, data analytics, and digital acceptance tools—to co-create new products for banks, fintechs, and merchants.

CBK’s plan for a Fast Payment System (FPS) and national switch seeks to unify banks and mobile wallets into one real-time platform, lowering costs and enabling seamless cross-provider transactions. This has triggered intense competition: Kenya’s banking sector backs Pesalink (operated by Integrated Payment Services Limited) as the backbone, while foreign players like Nigeria’s NIBSS partnered with Ceva in March 2025 to pitch for the project.

For Nigerians, this matters because NIBSS—Nigeria’s national payments switch—is directly competing for Kenya’s core infrastructure. This signals Nigeria’s strategic push into East African payments and could create cross-border payment opportunities, technology spillovers, or lessons for Nigeria’s own modernization. If NIBSS succeeds, Nigerian fintechs may gain regional clout.

Should Nigerian policymakers and fintechs accelerate domestic payment system upgrades to compete regionally, or wait to learn from Kenya’s model? How can Nigeria leverage NIBSS’s involvement to improve cross-border remittances and trade?

SOURCE: https://techcabal.com/2026/04/03/kenswitch-visa-deal-stakes-kenya-payments-overhaul/