UBA, Cellulant to take payment services to 19 African countries

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, the African financial institution, and Cellulant, a leading pan-African payments company, have teamed up to take merchants and consumers payment services to at least 19 African countries in which UBA operates.

The countries include, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

An explanatory statement on the partnership disclosed that it represents one of the primary tools in bringing together Africa’s fragmented payments ecosystem, ensuring Cellulant’s payment gateway, Tingg, a one-stop payment aggregator for multinational corporations, mid-caps and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) alike, which is available to a vast number of merchants and consumers in each of the markets where the African global bank is located.

Over $10 billion in gross value payments have been processed by Cellulant across the shared markets, with the partnership expected to expand the numbers significantly.

Speaking during the signing ceremony at the UBA House in Lagos, Oliver Alawuba, group deputy managing director, UBA, said the pan-African bank is happy to welcome Cellulant to Nigeria for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing and most importantly into UBA’s expansive landscape.

Expressing UBA’s commitment towards dominating the entire digital banking space in Africa, he said; “Our bank as you know, is one of the largest financial services institutions in Africa, providing services to over 25 million customers in 23 countries, 20 of which are on the African continent. This speaks to our strength and capability in terms of delivering innovative digital solutions to the last mile.”

Alawuba emphasised that UBA is consistently adapting innovative solutions and partnerships to satisfy customers’ evolving needs, while also providing them excellent and convenient services.

“With our strategic partnerships, we can accelerate the drive for financial inclusion and economic wellbeing of Africans on the continent.

As a customer focused bank we are dedicated to ensuring first rate customer service to all our customers as well as fashion out the best possible ways to ease the way they transact,” he added.

Alawuba further noted that the collaboration with Cellulant will allow for maximum impact when it comes to changing lives and introducing smarter ways for people to make payments in Africa.

In his remarks, Akshay Grover, group chief executive, Cellulant, expressed delight over UBA’s involvement as a new banking partner.

“As the payments landscape in Africa continues to evolve, we believe that FinTechs and banks need to have a deeper collaboration in expanding opportunities that will help ease payments and collections for businesses and their consumers across all sectors of the economy,” he said.

Grover also noted that the partnership with UBA will extend Cellulant’s unparalleled reach across the continent, giving merchants and consumers in its shared network the opportunity to enjoy streamlined digital payments services directly through their bank.