Rahma Ahmed
By Ahmed Rahma
A leading financial institution, Access Bank Plc, has partnered with American Express to broaden the acceptance and usage of American Express cards in the country.
This was made known in a statement by the Senior Banking Advisor Retail Banking, Access Bank, Mr Robert Giles on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to Mr Giles, this partnership would enable American Express cardholders to use their cards at a wider range of merchant locations in Nigeria for tourism, business or private visit.
He said, “This announcement places Access Bank as the first full-service bank to acquire merchants who will accept American Express card payments in the country.
“Local merchants will now have the option to accept American Express through Access Bank, thereby not only encouraging increased merchant business activity but also offering travelling American Express cardholders the opportunity to transact using their preferred method of payment.
“This new partnership will broaden the acceptance of American Express payments via Access Bank as well as Access Bank ATMs and e-commerce websites nationwide.”
He added that Access Bank merchants who embraced American Express cards would benefit from an additional high-spending customer base.
On the partnership, he said, “We are proud to be partnering American Express to bring some of the best payment solutions in the world to Nigeria.”
“This is great news for Nigerian businesses and will help bring foreign exchange inflows into the country. We value the confidence that American Express has placed in us to significantly enhance the payment experience in our market,” he added.
On the part of the Vice President, EMEA Network Partnerships for American Express, Vivi Galani, the company was pleased with the partnership to expand its presence in Nigeria.
“We are pleased to be partnering Access Bank to continue to expand the presence of American Express in Nigeria, which is an important location for our travelling cardholders and a fast-growing market for commerce.
“This agreement will give international card members even more locations to use their cards in Nigeria, whether they are travelling for business or leisure, and this will be particularly important as international travel resumes.
“For local merchants, it provides the opportunity to capture more business from global cardholders visiting the country,” Galani said.
