UBX Tanzania, ACI Worldwide expand digital payments partnership

By Aarav Garg

UBX Tanzania has extended its long-standing partnership with ACI Worldwide as the country’s payments infrastructure provider looks to support the next phase of Tanzania’s digital economy and financial services expansion.

The collaboration, which has spanned nearly two decades, focuses on improving infrastructure resilience, scalability and payment innovation as digital transaction volumes continue to grow across the Tanzanian banking and FinTech sectors. UBX currently supports the core payments infrastructure for 18 banks in Tanzania, operating a network of more than 250 ATMs and processing over 1.3 million transactions each month.

“As Tanzania’s payments landscape continues to grow in scale and complexity, we need infrastructure that is not only reliable but also adaptable to future demands,” said Seronga Wangwe, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBX Tanzania Limited. “ACI gives us the confidence to expand our services, support more institutions, and continue delivering secure, high-performance, and always-on payment experiences that underpin economic activity across the country.”

Under the expanded agreement, UBX is expected to accelerate onboarding for additional financial institutions while significantly increasing payment-processing capacity over the next five years. The infrastructure operates across two PCI-compliant data centres in Tanzania, designed to strengthen operational resilience, reduce downtime and improve transaction security for participating institutions.

“Our extended partnership with UBX reflects a long-standing relationship grounded in decades of mutual trust, underpinned by ACI’s deep global expertise in the payments industry and a shared commitment to advancing digital payment transformation in Tanzania,” said Nick Craig, General Manager, EMEA at ACI Worldwide.

The partnership also expands UBX’s ability to serve merchants directly, creating opportunities to broaden its payments and digital financial services portfolio. The platform will support the rollout of additional value-added services, including digital wallets, reflecting growing demand for mobile-first financial services and embedded payments capabilities across East Africa.

The development highlights broader investment across African financial markets in scalable, locally hosted payments infrastructure as banks, FinTech firms and payment providers modernise systems to support rising transaction volumes, regulatory requirements and digital commerce activity. It also reflects increasing demand for interoperable payment platforms capable of supporting both traditional banking services and emerging digital financial ecosystems.