Carbon – A Nigerian Digital Bank Partners With Visa To Launch Debit Cards This Year

Nigerian digital bank Carbon has announced a partnership with Visa. The pan-African fintech startup announced on Tuesday that the partnership is a strategic five-year partnership aimed at providing improved services andoffering its customers with digital and physical debit cards powered by Visa’s platform.

Carbon plans to launch its Visa debit cards in the third quarter of this year. It plans on leveraging on Visa’s payment functionalities to launch an instant issuance process in three target markets namely Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.Carbon’s recent partnership comes about a year after the company changed its model from being a digital lending company to a digital bank that offers financial services that include payment, savings, etc.

As part of the partnership, Visa will also provide the startup with financial support that will be spread over the five-year duration of the partnership. Carbon plans on using this fund to improve its services as well as provide implementation and marketing support to aid push growth and adoption of its products powered by Visa’s payments solutions.

Chijioke Dozie – the CEO of the startup talking about the partnership said that “Carbon is focused on delivering an unparalleled banking experience that is both safe and reliable across all touchpoints. We want more customers to enjoy some of our popular products like Carbon Zero through their carbon card, and key to achieving this is our partnership with a leading payments and fintech-friendly company like Visa”.

Carbon plans on leveraging these debit cards to increase its user base. The company already has more than 650,000 customers, and processes payments worth $241.35 million in payments, $63 million in loan disbursements in 2020 irrespective of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kemi Okunsanya – Vice President of Visa (West Africa), while speaking about the development said that “The rapid pace of technology innovations has driven a powerful shift in business and consumer expectations in finance. Whether it is changing the way peple invest, manage money, receive loans, or send real-time payments to friends and family, Visa is a natural partner for fintechs including Carbon, providing them with new ways to reach their customers through Visa’s vast network and global scale”.