Visa, _able and Onafriq partner to extend credit to Africa's debit and prepaid cardholders
Visa, _able and Onafriq partner to extend credit to Africa’s debit and prepaid cardholders #
Visa has signed a three-way agreement with credit infrastructure firm _able and pan-African payments company Onafriq to deploy its Flex Credential technology across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA), with African markets as the primary focus.
The Visa Flex Credential lets card issuers attach multiple funding sources to a single payment credential. Under the agreement, banks and other financial institutions can extend credit to customers who already hold eligible debit or prepaid cards without issuing a new card or enrolling customers in a separate product. The partners say this could lower the barrier to formal credit in markets where card adoption is growing but access to credit has lagged.
The three companies bring different capabilities to the arrangement. _able will supply the technology layer covering credit enablement, portfolio risk management, liquidity optimisation, and customer growth tools for participating issuers. Onafriq, whose payments network spans dozens of African markets, will handle payment processing for eligible prepaid card implementations and connect issuers to its pan-African infrastructure. Visa contributes the Flex Credential framework and its global card-scheme rails.
Jad Abbas, Co-Founder and CFO of _able, said most consumers in the region already hold a card but few can access credit through it. He described Visa Flex Credential as a way to convert that gap into a distribution channel, with _able providing the infrastructure to activate it responsibly and at scale.
Godfrey Sullivan, Senior Vice President and Head of Products and Solutions for CEMEA at Visa, said partnerships with firms such as _able and Onafriq allow issuers to explore new paths to broadening financial access. He described the Flex Credential as a tool that gives institutions a more flexible way to structure payment and credit experiences for their customers.
The agreement is part of a wider industry effort to route credit through existing card infrastructure in emerging markets rather than building standalone credit products. For Onafriq, it extends the company’s presence in card-based financial services, adding to a network built primarily around mobile money and cross-border payments.
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