Visa has partnered with financial technology firms _able and Onafriq to help banks and other financial institutions provide credit through existing debit and prepaid cards across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA).
The partnership centres on Visa Flex Credential, a product that allows one card credential to draw from different funding sources.
The companies say the arrangement could give more consumers access to credit without requiring them to take up a separate card.
Card ownership has grown in several African markets, but access to formal credit is still low. About 6% of Africa’s population has access to formal credit, according to figures provided for the initiative.
Nigeria shows a different side of the gap, with debit card ownership among Nigerian adults reaching 48.3% in 2024, compared with 35.3% in 2021. The figure also stands well above the 16.3% average recorded across sub-Saharan Africa.
That leaves banks and other financial institutions with a large base of customers who already use cards but may have limited access to credit.
Visa Flex Credential is designed to let participating issuers add credit to eligible debit and prepaid credentials. Customers can then use an existing card to access different sources of funds, depending on the issuer’s setup.
_able will provide the credit technology behind the partnership, while Onafriq will support payment processing for eligible prepaid card deployments. Visa, for its part, will provide the card technology and payment network.
“Most consumers across this region already hold a card, and very few can access credit through it,” said Jad Abbas, co-founder and CFO of _able. “Visa Flex Credential turns that gap into a channel, and _able provides the infrastructure to activate it responsibly and at scale.”
The arrangement also builds on _able’s work with banks, mobile money providers and other financial institutions. The company, formerly known as Credable, rebranded in 2026 as it expanded from a credit-focused business into a broader financial infrastructure platform.
It has facilitated more than $650 million in loans across Africa and has worked with companies including M-PESA, Airtel and Access Bank. Its platform connects capital providers such as banks and funds with distribution channels that include mobile money services and fintech platforms.
Onafriq brings the payments side of the partnership. The pan-African payments company operates across 40 African countries and connects about one billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank accounts.
Its services cover domestic and cross-border payments, card issuance and agent banking. In Nigeria, its Baxi network provides access to financial services through agents.
The company has also raised $177 million in Series C funding and has built a payments network designed to connect financial institutions and payment providers across African markets.
Christian Bwakira, group chief commercial officer at Onafriq, said the partnership would extend the company’s payments infrastructure to another area of financial access.
“Creating access and making borders matter less across Africa through payments is what our network is built for,” said Christian Bwakira, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Onafriq. “Supporting Visa Flex on prepaid, powered by our proprietary companion card platform and integrated to _able, extends that reach to a new category of credit access — one that gives everyday consumers more confidence to spend, even in markets where economic conditions shift quickly.”
For financial institutions, the companies expect the combined infrastructure to reduce some of the work involved in introducing card-based credit products. Participating issuers can explore Visa Flex Credential through _able’s platform and use Onafriq’s processing infrastructure where applicable.
Visa said the product can also give issuers more flexibility in how customers fund transactions.
“Visa Flex Credential gives financial institutions a new way to deliver more flexible and effortless payment experiences to their customers. By enabling greater choice in how consumers pay, it can help deepen engagement, unlock new revenue opportunities and drive operational efficiencies,” said Godfrey Sullivan, senior vice president and head of Products and Solutions, CEMEA, Visa.
“Through collaborations with innovative ecosystem partners such as _able and Onafriq, we are helping issuers explore new ways to broaden access to financial services and meet the evolving needs of consumers across the region.”
The partnership comes as card use expands in African markets, creating a larger base of customers who already have access to payment credentials.
The challenge now is extending more financial services to those customers without making access unnecessarily complicated. Visa, _able and Onafriq are positioning the Flex Credential model as one way for participating institutions to use existing card relationships to provide credit.
Financial institutions across CEMEA can now explore Visa Flex Credential through _able’s platform, subject to the markets and card portfolios where participating issuers choose to deploy the service.