News

ACI providing software for Rwanda's new payment network

February 8, 2005

OMAHA, Neb. - SIMTEL, an organization created by the Rwandan government to modernize the country's national payments network, is using ACI Worldwide's (Nasdaq:TSAI) BASE24-es to drive its core payments network and ACI Card Management System for the management of card accounts and personalization.

The BASE24-es integrated payment engine is the foundation of the Republic of Rwanda's new national inter-bank card payments network. The creation of a network for cash withdrawals from ATMs and card payments at the point-of-sale will benefit Rwanda's economy, banks and consumers, according to a news release.

"This is an exciting day for SIMTEL and for our country," said Roger Munyampenda, director general of SIMTEL. "BASE24-es will enable SIMTEL to acquire, authenticate, route, switch and authorize card transactions on behalf of the commercial banks in Rwanda. This is an important step in the economic development of our nation."

Rwanda's new payments infrastructure will initially support national Visa debit cards. A second phase will introduce the acceptance of international credit cards to help bolster a previously cash-only revenue stream from foreign visitors. It will also enhance the national card scheme and enable the use of pre-authorized debit cards, allowing the system to be used in environments where online authorization is not always possible.

The project will provide ATMs and POS terminals to all banks under the direction of the government and the central bank of Rwanda. This will enable a wide cardholder and merchant base to process transactions electronically -- in many cases, for the first time. The system uses the internationally standardized card scheme and payment methods of Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV).