Ecobank teams up with Nium to enable cross-border payments across 35 African markets
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of African banking group Ecobank, has partnered with US-based paytech Nium to offer cross-border payment solutions in 35 African markets.
Ecobank taps Nium for cross-border payment services
Through the collaboration, Nium’s real-time payments infrastructure will be embedded within Ecobank’s banking operations, allowing the bank to connect its existing SWIFT workflows to Nium for instant transfers, as well as for payment tracking, updates and settlement.
According to Nium, these initiatives will dramatically “reduce waiting times for cross-border payments, enabling businesses to make faster payments to over 220 markets, including over 100 countries with real-time capabilities”.
In addition, Nium says that Ecobank will be able to “exchange its existing SwiftMT and ISO20022 messages” to initiate payments on the fintech’s real-time platform.
Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank Group, describes the bank’s leveraging of Nium’s API-based payment platform as a “significant step towards advancing financial inclusion and connectivity across Africa and enabling businesses to thrive in a global marketplace”.
Ecobank Group, headquartered in Lomé, Togo, is a pan-African financial services provider with operations in 35 sub-Saharan African countries, as well as in France, China, the UAE and UK.
The bank offers a platform for cash management, trade, payments and investments, while employing nearly 15,000 people to deliver corporate, consumer, commercial, and investment banking services to over 32 million customers.
