Collaboration eases
e-commerce across Africa

BankservAfrica and UnionPay International (UPI) are collaborating to enable UPI e-commerce acceptance across several countries in Africa. This builds on UPI’s appointment of BankservAfrica, in December 2023, as its domestic on-soil processor for affordable, accessible, and innovative card payments for South Africa.

“As the largest automated payments clearing house in Africa, responsible for clearing and processing billions of low-value card, ATM, and account-to-account transactions annually, BankservAfrica is well-positioned to serve Africa’s growing e-commerce market regionally and internationally,” says Stephen Linnell, CEO of BankservAfrica.

UnionPay operates in 50 African countries, and this agreement will further expand its growing network, which spans 183 countries globally. The organisation cites the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2023, stating that this development, which supports the Internet economy, has the potential to add $180-billion to the continent’s gross domestic product.

Asad Burney, head of UnionPay International Africa region, says: “African markets have always been key and valued by UnionPay. The new project of enabling e-commerce acceptance offers great opportunities to existing UnionPay cardholders by providing African merchants expanded exposure to a global audience.”

UPI and BankservAfrica aim for this strategic partnership to position the organisations to be in the frontline of the accelerated e-commerce growth across the continent. The International Trade Administration estimates this rapid expansion will see about 500-million people using e-commerce for their everyday transactions by 2025.

Linnell says: “With the continent’s hyperconnected economy on the rise, BankservAfrica will continue to provide sustainable payment services for the digitally transforming future. We are excited by this collaboration and its potential to promote digital trade that fosters economic development and eases everyday online payments.”