Interswitch Teams Up With Temenos to Compete for Africa's Banking Technology Billions

Africa's payments giant is moving up the value chain — and it has a Swiss partner to help it get there.

Interswitch, one of Africa's largest integrated payments companies, has signed a partnership with Temenos — the Geneva-based banking software firm — to deliver managed banking services to financial institutions across the continent. The deal marks a deliberate pivot by Interswitch from payments processing into the far more lucrative world of core banking infrastructure.

What the Deal Actually Covers

Under the agreement, Interswitch will adopt Temenos' technology stack spanning core banking, digital banking, payments, wealth management, and financial crime management — then resell and manage those services for African lenders on both cloud-hosted and on-premises deployments.

The initial target markets are Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Kenya, with a broader continental rollout planned.

For banks, the pitch is straightforward: modernise ageing systems without having to manage the complexity of large-scale technology overhauls in-house. Interswitch handles the heavy lifting.

Why This Market, Why Now

African banks are spending heavily on technology upgrades — and the numbers make it easy to see why Interswitch wants a seat at that table.

Six Nigerian banks alone spent ₦268.7 billion ($171.5 million) on IT infrastructure — including core banking upgrades — in 2024. Continent-wide, the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) market across the Middle East and Africa is projected to reach $27.10 billion in 2026, according to Mordor Intelligence.

That is a market Interswitch has decided it can no longer afford to watch from the sidelines.

Interswitch's Ambition in Plain Terms

Founded in 2002, Interswitch built its name on consumer-facing products — Quickteller for bill payments and Verve, its domestic card scheme that crossed 100 million cards issued in December 2025.

That is a formidable foundation. But payments rails alone carry thinner margins than owning the core systems banks run on. By embedding Temenos' platform into its managed services offering, Interswitch is repositioning itself as an end-to-end banking technology partner — not just a transaction processor.

"This is a pivotal moment for Interswitch as we accelerate our expansion beyond payments and reimagine digital banking for Africa," said Jonah Adams, Managing Director for Digital Infrastructure and Managed Services at Interswitch.

The Competition Is Already There

Interswitch will not have the field to itself.

CWG Plc — which has an existing partnership with India's Infosys — already distributes the Finacle core banking application to major Nigerian lenders including First Bank and GTBank. That is a well-established relationship that Interswitch must now displace or outflank.

For Temenos, the deal comes with some urgency. The Swiss firm lost Sterling Bank as a client in 2024 after the tier-2 Nigerian lender migrated to SEABaaS, a custom-built core banking platform. Interswitch's continent-wide distribution network gives Temenos a meaningful recovery play in the region.

"Interswitch's strong presence across the continent also extends our reach and further strengthens our ecosystem and partner network," said William Moroney, Chief Revenue Officer at Temenos.

The Bigger Picture for African Fintech

This deal is part of a broader pattern: African technology companies that built scale on payments are now moving into infrastructure, lending, and software — competing directly with global enterprise vendors.

For investors and operators tracking where African fintech is heading, the investment banking vs fintech vs wealth management guide lays out how these industry lines are blurring, while the cybersecurity finance Nigeria guide explores the risk layer that sits beneath every core banking migration.

The Bottom Line

Interswitch is no longer content to sit at the edge of the banking system. With Temenos' software and its own continental relationships, it is making a serious bid to own the infrastructure that African banks run on.

Whether it can out-execute established players like CWG-Infosys will define the next chapter of one of Africa's most consequential technology companies.

According to a Financial Times review of African banking technology trends, institutions that delay core system modernisation face compounding operational risk as digital transaction volumes surge. A Bloomberg Intelligence note on African fintech infrastructure highlights managed services partnerships as the dominant procurement model for mid-tier lenders through 2028.

Reported by the WealthBlueprint NewsDesk — tracking the deals and decisions shaping African finance.