Access Bank, a tier-1 Nigerian commercial bank present in 22 countries, is building a payment rail, Access Africa, to allow people and businesses to send money across the continent through Access bank accounts. 

“It’s our proprietary rail that connects Africa,” Rob Giles, Access Bank’s senior retail banking advisor, said at a media parley on November 22. 

Access Bank will use its presence in 16 key African markets including Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, to connect its African customers—the largest on the continent—to major international trade hubs through its physical offices in Asia and Europe and facilitate global trade.  

The bank is also partnering with “as many fintechs as possible” that would use the payment rail to send money across borders. “We partnered with other remittance companies to [enable transfers] into a mobile wallet in Kenya, for example, or to facilitate transfers to and from China,” Giles said.  

Access Africa will allow the bank to compete in the sub-Saharan African remittance market valued at $54 billion in 2023. Ecobank, a pan-African bank present in 33 African countries, also allows its customers to send money to each other across these countries through Rapidtransfer, its payment rail. 

Access Bank will face stiff competition from stablecoins, which offer instant transfer, remittance infrastructure startups like Zone and Keyrails, and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), an infrastructure developed by the African Export-Import Bank which enables instant cross-border payments in local currencies across Africa. 

The bank hopes its presence in 19 African countries and partnerships with fintechs will help it fend off competitors. “We’re [using] the Access Africa corridor to link countries [the bank is present in],” Giles said.