Ecobank Partners to Provide Payment Gateway to Enhance Service Delivery

To offer efficient and robust services to their customers, KenTrade has entered into a consortium partnership with Cellulant, Ecobank and GAINDE 2000. With this new partnership, Importers and Exporters will enjoy premium services on the TradeNet system; an online platform serves as a single entry point for parties involved in international trade and transport logistics.

Speaking at the signing ceremony held at Cellulant offices in Nairobi, Akshay Grover, Cellulant’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, said that the partnership with KenTrade is a testament to Cellulant’s commitment to partner with both private and government entities to drive digital payments adoption in all sectors. “We recognise that trade is a critical element for economic growth for any country. Africa has tremendous resources, and facilitating easy movement of import and export goods will increase intra-Africa trade and give the continent a share of the world trade. This partnership is one step towards this growth, and we are happy to unveil our digital payments platform as more customers look to pay seamlessly for their goods and services.” 

KenTrade Chief Executive Officer, Amos Wangora on his side, said that the “Payment Gateway will allow for our Partner Government Agencies to monitor and validate the payments in real-time, which speaks to our mantra on the ease of doing business.”

Gainde 2000 Senior Executive Director Business Development and International Affairs Mortalla DIOP noted that ‘KenTrade and GAINDE 2000 embarked on a strong collaboration since 2012 with the launch of the single window implementation in Kenya. This has followed the long presence of GAINDE 2000 in Kenya supporting Kenya Revenue Customs Management System and Revenue Collection systems (SIMBA and CCRS).

Cheick Travaly, Ecobank Kenya Managing Director & Regional Executive Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, noted: “Trade is a key component of our business across our 33 operational countries in Africa. Through our vast geographical footprint and supported by our robust and innovative digital solutions, we aim to partner with like-minded players to provide solutions that facilitate trade by boosting revenue generation and embracing digitization to enable real-time revenue collection and convenience to all customers.”

KenTrade has Approximately 130 Partner Government Agencies that will now be able to pay digitally. Through Tingg, Cellulant’s Digital Payments Platform, customers will access additional payment options such as mobile money, mobile banking and merchant cards.

Cellulant is a leading Pan-African financial technology company providing a one-stop digital payments platform. Cellulant uses technology to connect people and their resources, making it easier to do business across Africa. It provides a single digital payments platform – named Tingg- addressing the complex payments needs of businesses. Tingg makes it easy to collect and make payments across multiple payment methods in different currencies, with the best customer experience for any business looking to digitize their payments. It has an office presence in 18 African countries with a payments platform connecting thousands of businesses with 154 payment options across 35 countries.

Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade), a State Corporation under the National Treasury established in January 2011 to establish, implement and manage the National Electronic Single Window System (Kenya TradeNet System) and to facilitate trade.  Kenya TradeNet System is an online platform that serves as a single entry point for parties involved in international trade and transport logistics to lodge documents electronically, for processing, approvals and to make payments electronically for fees, levies, duties and taxes due to the Government, on goods imported or exported in the country.

Ecobank Kenya is part of the Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’) the parent company of the Ecobank Group, the leading independent pan-African banking group. The Ecobank Group employs over 14,000 people and serves about 24 million customers in the consumer, commercial and corporate banking sectors across 33 African countries. The Group has a banking license in France and representative offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Beijing, China; London, the UK and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The Group offers a full suite of banking products, services and solutions including bank and deposit accounts, loans, cash management, advisory, trade, securities, wealth and asset management. ETI is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchanges in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra, and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan.

AGAINDE  2000 is probably one of the first trade facilitation Systems providers in Africa. It covers a large scope of functionalities and allows traders and shipping companies to lodge their declarations online to customs. GAINDE 2000 core business has evolved into designing, implementing and operating digital platforms for Governments and businesses. It is a critical player in the dematerialization of administrative formalities in Africa, with consulting services delivered in more than 20 countries.

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