Kenswitch, the leading Payments Service Provider (PSP) in Kenya, has appointed Karimi Ithau as its new managing director, replacing George Wainaina who left a few months ago. Ithau previously served as the head of the sales network at Interswitch for the last five years prior to the new role.

Ithau previously worked as the general manager and head of business development at Paynet, and also as head of e-banking overseeing the corporate and institutional banking division at the Standard Chartered Bank.

The new appointment comes as Kenswitch signs a new deal with Absa Bank to give its customers access to over 2,200 ATMs on the Kenswitch network. The new deal will also allow over 10 million Kenswitch member bank customers to transact on Absa’s ATM network countrywide.

Kenswitch, a subsidiary of EFT Corporation, one of Africa’s most successful fintech firms, promotes enhanced interoperability between banks to deepen financial inclusion. The company achieves this by allowing its customers to conveniently access banking services across Kenswitch branded ATM outlets in areas where their banks have no physical presence.

Kenswitch’s interoperable network provides over 2,200 ATMs, 20,000 plus Agency Banking outlets and over 15,000 merchant POS outlets. Kenswitch has 26 member banks connected to its local network.

Karimi Ithau, Managing Director, Kenswitch said:

“This partnership is in line with the Central Bank of Kenya’s National Payments Strategy that seeks to provide customers with a seamless, secure, convenient and wider access to banking services as we build a collaborative payments ecosystem. This initiative is designed to create a shared platform for a financial services provider that is convenient, reliable, secure and that seeks to provide wider access to financial services to Absa customers and also to other member bank customers within our network.”

Grant Flanagan, Chief Operating Officer of EFT Corporation added,

“We are very excited to announce this major new agreement, which will completely transform financial access and inclusion across Kenya. The deal underlines EFT’s commitment to developing payments infrastructure and services across all African markets as we continue to expand our business.”