Visa, _able, and Onafriq today announced a partnership to support the expansion of the Visa Flex Credential across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA). Signed today, the collaboration is intended to help financial institutions activate credit experiences alongside existing prepaid and debit credentials.
Visa Flex Credential enables issuers to offer multiple funding sources through a single card credential. Through this collaboration, financial institutions may be able to extend access to credit through existing eligible debit and prepaid credentials, helping simplify the customer experience while supporting broader financial inclusion.
For _able, Visa Flex Credential extends the capabilities available through its platform, complementing existing deployments across banking and mobile money channels. By supporting card-based use cases alongside other digital financial services, _able aims to help financial institutions deliver 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, debit and prepaid card adoption has grown significantly, while access to formal credit products remains limited. Through Visa Flex Credential, issuers may be able to leverage existing customer relationships and payment credentials to offer additional financial services through familiar payment experiences.
Under the collaboration, Onafriq will support payment processing capabilities for eligible prepaid card implementations and connect participating institutions to its pan-African payments infrastructure. This is intended to help broaden access to Visa Flex Credential-enabled experiences in markets where participating issuers choose to deploy them.
For banks and issuers, the partnership is designed to help simplify implementation by bringing together payment technology, processing capabilities and digital credit enablement infrastructure. Through its platform, _able supports institutions in managing portfolio performance, risk management, liquidity optimization and customer growth initiatives, and Onafriq will enable card processes and payments delivery functionalities.
“Most consumers across this region already hold a card, and very few can access credit through it,” said Jad Abbas, Co-Founder and CFO of _able. “Visa Flex Credential turns that gap into a channel, and _able provides the infrastructure to activate it responsibly and at scale.”
“Visa Flex Credential gives financial institutions a new way to deliver more flexible and effortless payment experiences to their customers. By enabling greater choice in how consumers pay, it can help deepen engagement, unlock new revenue opportunities and drive operational efficiencies,” said Godfrey Sullivan, Senior Vice President and Head of Products and Solutions, CEMEA, Visa. “Through collaborations with innovative ecosystem partners such as _able and Onafriq, we are helping issuers explore new ways to broaden access to financial services and meet the evolving needs of consumers across the region.”
“Creating access and making borders matter less across Africa through payments is what our network is built for,” said Christian Bwakira, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Onafriq. “Supporting Visa Flex on prepaid, powered by our proprietary companion card platform and integrated to _able, extends that reach to a new category of credit access — one that gives everyday consumers more confidence to spend, even in markets where economic conditions shift quickly.”
Financial Institutions across CEMEA can now explore opportunities to leverage Visa Flex Credential on their existing card portfolios using _able’s platform. The platform is designed to operate across multiple processing environments, helping support implementations as adoptions grows within participating markets.
Headquartered in Dubai, with an operational hub in Nairobi, a market and innovation hub in Dar es Salaam, and a technology and intelligence hub in Pune, _able supports partners across multiple emerging markets across the region.
As demand for accessible, digital financial services continues to grow, _able remains focused on helping bridge the gap between capital providers and distribution channels through technology that enables responsible and scalable financial products.
