Citi stands head and shoulders above its rivals in this category. The products it generates are designed to help day-to-day business for all its clients, be they global corporates working in and across Africa, or African firms scaling up their regional and international presence.
CitiDirect, the US firm’s global online banking platform, caters to the needs of its transaction-banking clientele. The new version, following a successful pilot, was rolled out across 14 African markets in 2023, from Algeria to Zambia. Improvements were made to its cross-border payments services, delivering forex integration to clients and streamlining supporting document submission. Digital signature acceptance, part of CitiDirect’s onboarding portal, is now live in 12 markets region wide.
Its Trade Automated Onboarding Solution is also live in six sub-Saharan African states; the web-based supplier onboarding platform enables seamless self-registration and document submission when onboarding to one of Citi’s supply-chain finance programmes. Pioneered in South Africa, it was rolled out last year in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Cameroon.
New services abound – proof of the bank’s push to deliver its full range of global services to clients in every target market. During 2023, Citi Kenya unveiled a key upgrade to PesaLink. The instant payment system is now live with 34 banks, seven payment services providers and one mobile money operator, processing more than $1.5 billion in annual transactions.
Tanzania Instant Payments System, an interoperable payments platform run by the country’s central bank, was enabled for Citi clients during the awards period. A first in the east African country, it allows transactions to flow between traditional bank accounts and mobile wallets, and is fully integrated with the bank’s internal channels, including CitiDirect.
Citi creates products designed to help day-to-day business for all its clients
As ever, Citi works with clients across the continent to deliver a new generation of transaction services. Rawbank, one of the largest lenders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, used to manage its short-term liquidity by placing deposits at more than 30 different lenders in order to meet strict counterparty limits – a costly and fiddly process. Citi’s solution was to simplify and automate liquidity management, enabling Rawbank to cut the number of banks with which it holds deposits to as few as 10, while cutting counterparty risk.
A Sudan-based non-governmental organization meanwhile was struggling to distribute funds: its primary bank was closing branches and struggling with poor internet connectivity.
As the NGO sought ways to remain operational, Citi proposed a cash-based solution; it worked with the charitable organization to source and securely transport the cash before clearing it through customs and delivering it safely to the NGO – delivering salaries to more than 4,000 staff and their families at an extremely challenging time for the country.
Mohamed Ibnelfarouk is the North Africa and Levant head for treasury and trade solutions and corporates, commercial and public-sector sales. Esther Chibesa is the sub-Saharan Africa head for treasury and trade solutions and corporates, commercial and public sector sales.
