• Solidaire Banque signed a three-year partnership with Visa to expand electronic payments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The bank plans new debit cards, prepaid products, and targeted credit services.
• The deal comes as mobile payments and financial inclusion grow rapidly across the country.

Solidaire Banque, based in Kinshasa, has signed a three-year partnership with the American payments company Visa, the global leader in digital payments. The agreement was announced on March 4 and aims to strengthen the bank’s electronic payment services in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Through the partnership, Solidaire Banque plans to rely on Visa’s global network to expand its product offering. The bank intends to launch new debit cards across the Classic, Platinum, and Infinite segments, along with prepaid payment solutions.

The agreement also includes the development of targeted credit services designed for premium customers.

On the technology side, the partnership centers on integrating Visa Pay, a solution that allows the instant issuance of virtual payment cards. The system is expected to support the bank’s digital transition as mobile payment usage continues to grow across the country.

The partnership also reinforces Visa’s presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company opened its first Central Africa office in the country in 2022 and plans to work with the Central Bank of Congo to support the modernization of the national financial system.

Mobile payments and financial inclusion on the rise

The agreement comes as Congo’s financial landscape undergoes rapid change. Mobile payments have expanded quickly, according to the GSMA, the global association of mobile network operators. Financial inclusion has reached 50%, up from 38.5% in 2022.

This progress has been driven largely by the growth of mobile money services, which counted about 23.1 million users in the first quarter of 2024, according to the country’s telecom regulator, the Autorité de régulation de la poste et des télécommunications du Congo (ARPTC).

With mobile penetration estimated at 60.4%, banks are increasingly seeking to capture a larger share of digital transactions, which are still largely dominated by telecommunications operators.

At the same time, the regulatory framework is strengthening. Authorities are implementing the national financial inclusion strategy for 2023–2028, which aims to improve connections between financial institutions and establish a national interbank electronic payments group to coordinate transactions across the banking system.

According to the GSMA, the expansion of digital technologies in the Democratic Republic of Congo could generate an estimated 11,800 billion Congolese francs — about $5.1 billion — in added economic value by 2029. The sector could also create nearly 2.5 million jobs and increase tax revenues by about 3,000 billion Congolese francs.

Sandrine Gaingne