Interswitch is a leading African integrated payments and digital commerce platform company headquartered in
Lagos
Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
. Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, as a transaction switching and processing company with national focus, Interswitch progressively evolved to incorporate consumer financial services with the successive launches of Quickteller, a retail payments ecosystem linking merchants and billers with consumers, as well as Verve, a homegrown, EMV-certified payments card scheme.
History
After using an
ATM for the first time in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, Mitchell Elegbe developed an idea to create electronic payment infrastructure in Nigeria while he was working on implementing
SWIFT
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIF ...
. Working at Telnet, his boss approved the transaction switch. However most players he sold to were not interested in the software for switching; this led him to creating Interswitch so as to meet his targets. With the assistance of
Accenture
Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...
, Elegbe and his team established the company, of which he then became CEO.
In 2010 two thirds of the company was sold to a consortium led by
Helios Investment Partners.
[ In 2011 Interswitch took a 60 per cent stake in Bankom in ]Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
.[
In 2013 Interswitch entered into an agreement for payment processing with ]Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial Services, Inc. was an American financial services company best known for its Discover Card. Founded in 1985, the company offered a wide range of banking and payment services, including checking and savings accounts, persona ...
.
In September 2014 the company acquired a majority shareholding in Paynet Group, an East-African payments provider.
In 2015 Interswitch launched a $10m investment fund for African start-ups in the payments sector.
In February 2018, Interswitch unveiled its SPAK National Science Competition to promote and reward excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Nigeria.
In January 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued Interswitch a Payments Service Holding Company (PSHC) License. This served as one of the inaugural licensees by the CBN in this category. The development interestingly coincided with Interswitch’s 20th anniversary commemoration, which has seen the Company cement its position as a pioneering and integral enabler that has actively supported the growth and development of fintech and payments progressively across Africa over the last 20 years.
Operations and subsidiaries
The Interswitch company was established as, common African financial services provider and maintains exclusively, a wide array of interconnected datacenters in Africa.[
]Verve
Verve may refer to:
Music
* The Verve, an English rock band
* '' The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve
* ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album)
* Verve Records, an American jazz record label
Businesses
* Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee h ...
, a payment card industry is another subsidiary of Interswitch.[ Verve has also been launched in Kenya.
Interswitch also owns Quickteller, originally cited as a Telecommunication airtime vendor, additionally, providing payments services.
Interswitch systems deploys sophisticated inter-networking security and firewalls, as common brand innovation.
In October 2020, Quickteller launched the Qtrybe community, a community of 50 exceptional students from Nigerian tertiary institutions to serve as ambassadors of Quickteller and Interswitch on their campuses.]
References
{{reflist
Financial services companies established in 2002
Financial services companies of Nigeria
Companies based in Lagos
Nigerian brands