Visa Partners With _able, Onafriq to Expand African Credit Access
Debit and prepaid card adoption has expanded across Africa, but access to formal credit has continued to lag, leaving many existing cardholders without borrowing options tied to their accounts. Visa Flex Credential allows issuers to combine multiple funding sources on a single card, giving financial institutions a way to add credit to established debit or prepaid products without issuing a separate credential or rebuilding their technology systems.
Visa said on Aug. 20, 2026, it had partnered with credit-infrastructure provider _able and pan-African payments company Onafriq to bring those capabilities to existing card portfolios. Onafriq will process eligible prepaid-card implementations and connect participating institutions to a network reaching about 1 billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank accounts across Africa. _able will supply a unified platform supporting credit and savings products across multiple processing environments.
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The history behind this eventVisa and Citcon Partner to Expand Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Money Movement
Visa Direct is Visa’s real-time push-payment network, which can send funds directly to eligible cards, bank accounts or digital wallets. Citcon primarily helps merchants integrate multiple payment methods. The partnership could shorten settlement processes and reduce the complexity of moving corporate funds across borders.
Citcon said it would integrate Visa Direct into its merchant payments platform, supporting domestic and cross-border payments involving cards, bank accounts and digital wallets. As of July 20, 2026, the companies had not disclosed the value of the partnership, the formal signing date or a full rollout schedule.
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