Equity has won the Visa Top Acquiring Award as well as the Visa E-Commerce (Acquiring) Award during the Visa Awards 2021 ceremony. The two awards from Visa were issued to the Bank for leading in Visa acquired volumes, significantly growing its E-Commerce volumes, and leading in E-Commerce payment volumes.
Equity grew its acquiring business by double-digit to 53 percent year-on-year, which was attributed to the E-Commerce business, as its processed volume tripled compared to 2020. The Bank’s payment volume increased to Ksh78.12 billion in 2021, up from Ksh51.21 billion in 2020, while transaction count grew by 21 percent to 14.08 million in 2021, up from 11.68 million in 2020.
Visa Vice President and Head of East Africa, Corine Mbiaketcha who presented Equity the awards noted that COVID-19 has forced radical changes in customer behaviour, increasing the willingness to engage digitally.
“The world is increasingly becoming digitally driven by E-Commerce, with merchants showcasing an appetite for the mode of payments because they can easily track expenses and revenues. Kenya is way ahead of larger economies such as South Africa and Nigeria in digital payments. Whilst 71 percent of Kenyans continue to use cash, South Africa is at 91 percent and Nigeria at 94 percent,” she said.
Commenting on the awards, Equity Bank Kenya Managing Director Gerald Warui said, “We are happy to have been recognized by Visa as the leader in the Acquiring and E-Commerce payment spaces. These awards are an indication of our continued focus on rolling out innovative products that meet the evolving needs of the market, more so during the COVID-19 pandemic where cashless payments have become the mainstay.”
A total of 17 awards were presented to banks and merchants at the Visa Awards 2021 ceremony held in Nairobi.
