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Kenswitch, a Kenyan payment switch and shared payments infrastructure provider, has launched Kenya’s first national domestic card scheme, creating a locally operated alternative for card payments as the country prepares for tokenised cards, digital wallets and Tap to Pay.
The Kenswitch Card was unveiled on Monday at Digital Issuance Unlocked, a banking technology showcase held at Strathmore University in partnership with TAI FINTECH and Stanchion Payments.
“Our domestic card proposition is an important step in strengthening Kenya’s own payments capabilities and giving financial institutions an additional platform for domestic card issuance and transactions. At the same time, we are building with the future in mind. As global wallets increasingly adopt tokenised credentials, Kenya needs infrastructure that is ready to connect securely and interoperably to these emerging payment experiences,” said John Mukono, chief executive officer of Kenswitch.
The scheme lets participating banks and other financial institutions issue locally branded physical and virtual cards usable across Kenswitch’s domestic payments network, which connects more than 2,200 ATMs, 50,000 point-of-sale terminals and 80,000 agent outlets, alongside e-commerce and other digital channels.
During the event, the three partners demonstrated a working digital issuance application that links Kenswitch’s card management and switching infrastructure to Stanchion’s Payment Fabric platform.
The demo showed a customer opening and managing an account digitally and receiving a virtual domestic card almost immediately, with self-service controls such as freezing a card and dynamic security codes for online transactions.
Kenswitch said it is also exploring partnerships with technology and device manufacturers that could eventually let virtual Kenswitch cards be provisioned directly onto supported devices, opening the scheme to Tap to Pay.
“We are honoured to have been involved with Kenswitch, collaborating to drive modern digital issuing and lift African technology to new heights with the launch of Kenya’s domestic scheme, the Kenswitch Card, together with Stanchion’s Payment Fabric,” said Norman Frankel, chief growth officer at Stanchion Payments.
The partnership also extends into skills development, as Digital Issuance Unlocked brought together banks, payment service providers, FinTechs, microfinance institutions, regulators, technology companies, academics and students, with the partners saying closer ties between industry and academia could help build a local pipeline of payments engineers and specialists.
“Kenswitch gave us the rails, Stanchion brought the Payment Fabric, and TAI FINTECH turned that foundation into a live demonstration of Africa’s digital issuance future,” said Edwin Njeru, chief executive officer of TAI FINTECH.
