Kenswitch, Kenya's largest independent payments switch, has launched its own domestic card scheme, TechCabal reports. Banks and other financial institutions will be able to issue physical and virtual Kenswitch cards that run on its network.
The company unveiled the card at Strathmore University, where it showed a customer opening an account digitally and receiving a virtual card almost at once. The card could be frozen and unfrozen, generate changing security codes and approve online purchases through app notifications. The system was built with TAI Fintech, a university-linked venture, and Stanchion Payments.
Why a local card
Domestic card schemes keep more of the infrastructure and fees for local card payments inside the country, instead of paying international networks. Nigeria did this with AfriGo, built by the Central Bank of Nigeria and NIBSS, which had issued more than 1 million cards by September, according to TechCabal.
Kenya held 11.16 million debit cards, 2.26 million prepaid cards and 340,852 credit cards in July 2026, Central Bank of Kenya data shows. Visa and Mastercard are deeply embedded in that market, and mobile money dominates everyday payments.
"Kenswitch is positioning the local payments ecosystem to participate in the future of tokenised and digital payments," said chief executive John Mukono, according to TechCabal.
