American Express Company is introducing its business credit card in Nigeria through a partnership with local neobank O3 Capital, marking a groundbreaking initiative for the country. This collaboration aims to provide business owners with a $10,000 spending limit and a repayment period of up to 45 days for international transactions. The Bloomberg report highlights the potential of this launch to bolster working capital access in Nigeria, with Mohammed Badi, Amex’s president of global network services, emphasizing its importance in supporting local businesses’ growth.
Badi also expressed American Express’ excitement about expanding its presence in Nigeria and across Africa, with plans to extend its reach to 42 countries, up from the current 30, driven by growing consumer and small business demand.
In addition to the business credit card, American Express and O3 are teaming up to introduce personal and household cards with spending limits ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. O3 CEO Abimbola Pinheiro noted that the O3 Amex card addresses the inconvenience of bank queues for business and personal travel allowances.
O3 aims to issue 16,000 American Express cards by the year’s end and a million cards over the next five years. Moreover, there are plans to expand these cards to other countries like Rwanda, Congo, and Ghana, with the goal of issuing Amex cards in these regions by the end of the following year.
