Leading pan-African commercial bank, Ecobank, is now offering real-time cross-border payments across 35 African markets including Nigeria. This was disclosed in a press release seen by Technext. According to the statement, the innovation is made possible by a partnership with Singaporean cross-border payments company, Nium.
According to the statement, the seamless cross-border payment service is estimated to be available for more than 32 million customers across the continent. The partnership, the bank believes, is set to revolutionise the payment landscape on the African continent by enabling faster, more efficient international payments for businesses and consumers alike.
Speaking about the partnership, CEO of Ecobank Group. Jeremy Awori said the collaboration is a significant step towards the advancement of financial inclusion in Africa.
“Partnering with Nium allows us to enhance our service offerings and provide our customers with faster, more efficient cross-border payment solutions. By leveraging our unique API-based payment platform, this collaboration is a significant step towards advancing financial inclusion and connectivity across Africa and enabling businesses to thrive in a global marketplace,” he said.
How Ecobank’s new cross-border payment partnership will work
Headquartered in Singapore and San Fransisco, Nium prides itself as the leading global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, founded on the mission to deliver the global payments infrastructure of tomorrow, today. With the onset of the global economy, the company says its payments infrastructure is shaping how banks, fintechs, and businesses everywhere collect, convert, and disburse funds instantly across borders.
The company says its payout network supports 100 currencies and spans over 220 markets, 100 of which are in real-time. Funds can be disbursed to accounts, wallets, and cards and collected locally in 40 markets. Nium holds regulatory licenses and authorisations in more than 40 countries, enabling seamless onboarding, rapid integration, and compliance – independent of geography.
In its partnership with Ecobank, Nium’s real-time payments infrastructure will be integrated into Ecobank’s existing banking operations. This will empower the bank to enhance its services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The bank, on its part, will connect its existing Swift workflows to Nium, gaining access to real-time transfers, updates, clearing, settlement, and payment tracking, without the need for complex API integrations.
Ecobank says it can exchange its existing SwiftMT & ISO20022 messages with Nium to initiate payments on the real-time platform, accelerating business growth and improving the speed and accuracy of cross-border payments for African businesses.
The companies believe that with these, their partnership will significantly reduce waiting time for cross-border payments, enabling businesses to make faster payments to over 220 markets, including over 100 countries with real-time capabilities.
Ecobank says that through this partnership, its customers across Africa will benefit from an enhanced experience that allows faster and more efficient cross-border payment. This will further unlock new opportunities for SMEs to connect with global markets.
General Manager and Executive Vice President for APAC, Middle East and Africa at Nium, Anupam Pahuja, said the company is thrilled to introduce its technology into Africa through Ecobank as it is a step towards its global expansion.
“We are thrilled to partner with Ecobank and introduce Nium’s cutting-edge real-time payment capabilities to Africa. This collaboration represents an important step forward in expanding our global payments network, and we are proud to support Ecobank in delivering faster, more efficient payments for its customers across the region,” he said.
He also stated that the partnership aligns with Nium’s broader strategy to enhance global financial inclusion, enabling access to real-time payments in regions where traditional banking systems may be slow or unreliable. Through this collaboration, Ecobank is now better equipped to provide an unmatched cross-border payment experience for its customers, while Nium continues its mission to democratize access to the world’s largest real-time payments network.
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