Swiss-based payments technology company BPC plans to expand the availability of its technology across Africa, building on its existing footprint and partnerships with financial institutions.
“Our strategy is just to provide our technology and our platform across the continent to all countries,” said Vasily Grigoriev, BPC’s executive vice-president and managing director, in an interview with ITWeb Africa at the BPC Client Conference 2026 in Cape Town.
BPC believes African banks could make better use of existing payments infrastructure to introduce new digital services without costly system overhauls. These services include tailored instalment plans and deeper transaction data analysis.
The company is also targeting South Africa’s informal economy, identifying the taxi industry as an opportunity to deploy its SmartVista mobility and automated fare collection technology. The solutions could help fleet owners move away from cash-based transactions towards digital payments and improved transaction tracking.
Asked how BPC helps individuals and small businesses facing barriers to accessing financial services, Grigoriev said the company offers an ecosystem of solutions rather than standalone software.
“We are not just simple software vendor providers. We are providing an ecosystem. In our ecosystem, the core part is the software, which is called SmartVista, but we have some other products which provide some added-value services to this core product,” he said.
These offerings include marketplace solutions, digital banking platforms and automated fare collection systems for public transport.
“We provide marketplace solutions, we provide digital banking, we even provide solutions for transportation systems, automatic fare collection systems, which allow some countries to decrease the cost of providing card acceptance,” Grigoriev said.
BPC said its SmartVista technology indirectly supports more than 400 additional financial institutions across the Middle East and Africa.
Through its direct customers and institutions connected to its platforms, the company estimates that SmartVista-based services support access to digital financial services for many people across Africa and the Middle East.
As fintech start-ups, mobile money providers and traditional banks compete to shape Africa’s digital payments landscape, Grigoriev said BPC positions itself as a technology partner rather than a competitor.
“We are not competing with these fintech start-ups and with the banks. We are in partnership with them. We provide technology to enable payments in some countries. So we are like a tool for companies that would like to start their business in fintech,” he said.
Grigoriev said BPC’s competitive advantage extends beyond its products and workforce to its track record of customer retention and project delivery.
“From my perspective, our key advantages are not just the best product, not just the best people who are working for us. For the last 30 years, we haven’t lost any customers because of poor performance or because we didn’t manage to implement some project. So we are a very customer-oriented company,” he said.
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