Visa, _able and Onafriq today announced a partnership to support the deployment of Visa Flex Credential across Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). Signed today, this collaboration agreement aims to help financial institutions, fintechs and mobile operators offer credit solutions alongside their existing prepaid and debit products.
The Visa Flex Credential service allows issuing institutions to offer multiple funding sources through a single card. Through this collaboration, financial institutions could be able to extend credit access via eligible existing debit and prepaid cards, which would help simplify the customer experience while promoting greater financial inclusion.
For _able, Visa Flex Credential expands the functionality available through its platform, complementing existing deployments across banking and mobile payment channels. By supporting card-related use cases alongside other digital financial services, _able aims to help financial institutions offer a broader range of credit and savings experiences through a unified technology platform.
Financial inclusion is strengthened when capital, distribution, and operational capabilities work together effectively. This collaboration brings together Visa’s payment technology and global network, _able’s credit-enablement infrastructure, and Onafriq’s payment processing capabilities to support financial institutions across the region.
Across many African markets, the use of debit and prepaid cards has grown considerably, while access to traditional credit products remains limited. Through Visa Flex Credential, issuing institutions will be able to leverage their existing customer relationships and payment credentials to offer additional financial services through familiar payment experiences.
As part of this partnership, Onafriq will handle payment processing functionality for eligible prepaid card deployments and connect participating institutions to its pan-African payments infrastructure. The goal is to help expand access to experiences built on Visa Flex Credential technology in markets where participating issuers choose to deploy them.
For banks and issuers, this partnership aims to simplify implementation by bringing together the payment technology, processing capabilities, and infrastructure needed to enable digital credit. Through its platform, _able helps institutions manage portfolio performance, risk management, liquidity optimization, and customer development initiatives, while Onafriq will handle card-related processes and payment processing functionality.
“Most consumers in this region already own a card, but very few are able to use it to access credit,” said Jad Abbas, co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of _able. “Visa Flex Credential turns that gap into an opportunity, and _able provides the infrastructure needed to make it happen responsibly and at scale.”
“Visa Flex Credential gives financial institutions a new way to offer their customers more flexible and simpler payment experiences. By giving consumers more payment choices, this solution can help strengthen customer engagement, unlock new revenue opportunities, and improve operational efficiency,” said Godfrey Sullivan, Vice President and Head of Products and Solutions for the CEMEA region at Visa. “Through collaborations with innovative ecosystem partners such as _able and Onafriq, we are helping issuing institutions explore new ways to expand access to financial services and meet the ever-evolving needs of consumers across the region.”
“Our network is focused on making financial services more accessible and reducing cross-border barriers in Africa through payments,” said Christian Bwakira, Commercial Director of the Onafriq Group. “The support we’re providing for Visa Flex on prepaid cards, through our proprietary companion card platform and its integration with _able, extends that reach into a new category of credit access; a category that gives consumers the confidence to manage their everyday spending, even in markets where economic conditions are changing rapidly.”
Financial institutions in the CEMEA region can now explore the possibility of integrating Visa Flex Credential into their existing card portfolios through the _able platform. Designed to work across a variety of processing environments, the platform facilitates deployments as adoption of the solution grows across participating markets.
Headquartered in Dubai, with an operations hub in Nairobi, a market and innovation hub in Dar es Salaam, and a technology and intelligence hub in Pune, _able supports its partners across many of the region’s emerging markets.
As demand for accessible digital financial services continues to grow, _able remains committed to bridging the gap between funders and distribution channels through technology that enables responsible, scalable financial products.
