NCBA has officially rolled out ConnectPlus, a corporate banking platform valued at USD 6 million, marking a milestone in its digital transformation journey. Built on Intellect’s eMACH.ai wholesale banking cloud solution, the platform aims to bring faster transactions, richer reporting, and enhanced cash and liquidity management to corporate customers across East Africa.
With this launch, NCBA has become the first bank in East Africa to deploy Intellect’s cloud-native transaction-banking system, giving it a distinct edge in digital corporate banking in the region.
Developed in partnership with Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB) and powered by the eMACH.ai Wholesale Banking Cloud, the platform marks the first deployment of its kind in East Africa.
Signaling NCBA’s bold move to lead digital transformation in corporate financial services by delivering faster transactions, expanded payment and collection capabilities, enhanced reporting, and improved liquidity management, all within a more secure, streamlined, and user-friendly digital ecosystem designed to drive growth across Africa.
Speaking at the launch, James Gossip, Managing Director of NCBA Bank Kenya, said the platform reinforces the bank’s ambition to become a leading provider of corporate and SME banking solutions.
“NCBA’s digitally enabled transaction banking suite is a major move towards becoming a dominant bank in Kenya that serves Corporates and SMEs with a full array of products for all their local and international transaction banking needs, at a competitive price and to support the Government’s Kenya Digital Economy initiative based on Kenya Vision 2030.”
ConnectPlus integrates a broad range of module functionalities; from account services, collections, payments, liquidity, trade finance and host-to-host services — in a unified, composable architecture built on microservices and open APIs.
Security is at the core of the platform, with advanced protocols to safeguard client data and transaction integrity. The user interface is also built to be intuitive and context-aware, catering to a variety of corporate and SME clients with differing technical familiarity.
NCBA says the system enables “future-proof banking transformation” and will allow it to deploy new cash management products “in record time,” gaining competitive advantage through agility and innovation.
From the standpoint of Intellect (the vendor powering the platform), the roll-out reflects their success in embedding eMACH.ai across more than 60 wholesale banks globally. “Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets embracing digital transformation,” said Intellect’s executives at the event.
According to Manish Maakan, CEO of Intellect Global Transaction Banking, the partnership is aimed at future-proofing NCBA’s transaction banking capabilities. He noted that Intellect’s eMACH.ai platform is already trusted by more than 60 of the world’s top banks and emphasized the growing importance of digital transformation in Africa’s financial sector. He added that NCBA is now well-positioned to differentiate itself in the market by offering context-aware, digitally enabled services to meet the evolving needs of its customers.
The platform’s expanded capabilities empower NCBA to introduce a comprehensive suite of products that cater to the complex needs of its diverse customer base, supporting both local and international transactions.
Regional banks have long faced challenges of legacy systems, fragmented platforms, and limited digital interconnectivity across borders. By adopting a modern cloud-based architecture, NCBA seeks to leapfrog constraints and offer seamless, scalable service across East Africa and potentially the broader continent.
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