To facilitate smooth cross-border payments for over 32 million customers across 35 African markets, Nium, a global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, announced a partnership with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.
This collaboration has the potential to drastically change the payment environment in the area by making international payments faster and easier for both customers and companies.
Ecobank will be able to improve its services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by integrating Nium’s real-time payments infrastructure into its current banking operations. By integrating Nium with its current Swift workflows to obtain real-time transfers, updates, clearing, settlement, and payment tracking, businesses will be able to pay more quickly to over 220 markets, including more than 100 countries with real-time capabilities.
“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.,” said Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank Group.
Ecobank will integrate Nium’s real-time payments infrastructure into its existing banking operations, enhancing its offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). To get real-time transfers, updates, clearing, settlement, and payment tracking, Ecobank will integrate Nium with its existing Swift workflows without the need for complex API interfaces. The significant decrease in waiting times for cross-border payments will enable businesses to pay faster to more than 220 markets, including more than 100 nations with real-time capabilities.
Customers of Ecobank around the area will gain from this partnership’s improved payments experience, which enables quicker and more effective cross-border transactions and opens up new avenues for SMEs to reach international markets.
General Anupam Pahuja, Manager and Executive Vice President for APAC, Middle East, and Africa at Nium, said, “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.”
Ecobank can exchange its existing SwiftMT and ISO 20022 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 partnership also 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.
