Absa And Network International Announce Strategic Partnership To Enhance Fleet And Payment Innovation

Fuel-card fraud is a challenge for fleet managers which can lead to substantial financial losses over time. At the same time, connected vehicle concepts, digitisation of payment channels, and a demand for self-service management of cards requires enhanced stability and innovation in this space.

Through this collaboration, services will include card management for fleet cards and commercial prepaid cards, transaction switching and authorisation, integration with fleet management software, direct connectivity to Absa Bank systems, card tokenisation, digital wallets, an online self-service platform and an expense management solution.

This forms part of Network International's commitment to being the digital payments technology partner of Absa Business Banking, and to Absa Business Banking leveraging Network International's end-to-end payment processing capabilities through a single payments platform and fully outsourced managed services model.

Together they aim to serve the needs of businesses across Africa, a move aligned with the seismic shift that African financial institutions are currently undergoing.

A new dawn for African payments

According to McKinsey’s published industry reports on African banking and financial services, Africa’s financial services market is potentially growing to about 10% per annum, reaching $230bn in revenues by 2025. The growth will include many new payment products as more organisations understand the importance of offering safe omni-channel solutions.

“As the ‘Bank of the Entrepreneur’ we are committed to delivering seamless, secure and smart payment solutions to meet our clients’ specific needs,” says Banie Claasen, managing executive for Lending Products at Absa Business Banking.

“By combining our deep-sector expertise with Network International’s leading technology, we’re empowering businesses with enhanced control and security, greater transparency and a frictionless payment experience. This collaboration underscores our commitment to innovation and customer-centricity.”

The uptake of Payments as a Service (PaaS) is fuelled by Africa’s growing Cloud adoption, which can be likened to the continent’s rapid growth in smartphone ownership. According to analysts, Cloud adoption in Africa is accelerating rapidly, nearing levels seen in North America and China.

“This new partnership marks a significant milestone for our company in Southern Africa and opens new avenues for growth and innovation. The growing adoption in cloud technologies has perfectly primed both fintech and traditional financial institutions to turbo-charge digital innovation," comments Richard Kadiaka, regional managing director, Southern Africa – Processing Services, Network International.

"Working with managed service providers allows institutions to quickly and simply deliver new products and services to an increasingly digitally savvy customer."