Premier Bank, a Sharia-compliant financial institution, has launched a new digital banking ecosystem dubbed Premier Connect that integrates mobile apps, USSD, international remittances, and wearable payment devices, in a move aimed at capturing East Africa’s fast-growing digital finance market.
- •Unveiled at an event in Nairobi on Thursday, the platform marks the bank’s entry into the regional fintech space with an omnichannel solution designed to support instant payments, digital onboarding, and global remittance flows.
- •The bank also introduced Premier Tap, a near-instant payments product incorporated on wearables such as rings, wristbands, key fobs, and even culturally adapted accessories like Maasai bead bracelets.
- •Premier Bank, headquartered in Somalia, officially entered the Kenyan market in July 2023, after acquiring a majority stake in First Community Bank.
“We have developed an ecosystem that has unlimited platforms, be it mobile banking, corporate authority, mobile banking for corporate, internet banking for corporate, where we have thousands of phones, softwares, requests from hundreds of countries,” said Premier Bank Chairman, Jibril Hassan.
The launch also underlines the bank’s ambition to challenge incumbents and fintechs alike by offering end-to-end control of its tech stack. By developing all infrastructure internally, the bank claims to have greater agility in innovation, product customization, and speed-to-market.
“Many companies are now in 24-7 sittings, innovating, designing systems on how payment is going to be a year or 10 years from now. And we need to be part of that innovation. We need to be sure that we are not left behind,” Jibril added.
Premier Bank’s new digital ecosystem positions itself as a way to embed financial access into everyday items, a strategy that blends technological innovation with local relevance.
With cross-border remittances being a cornerstone of its offering, Premier Connect targets diaspora flows, student payments, and SME trade settlements, with the promise of lower transaction costs and faster settlement times. The bank has partnered with Mastercard on the underlying payments technology, with both parties touting the interoperability and security of the system. The collaboration is also intended to ensure regulatory alignment and trust, particularly as mobile-first financial tools become mainstream.
Unlike most platforms that still require branch visits under the guise of compliance or fraud prevention, the bank’s digital system is fully self-service. Users can open accounts remotely, request and manage virtual cards, set transaction limits, reset PINs, and even tokenize cards for use on wearables just using the app.
“When we talk about wearable devices, it’s actually safer than using a physical card. So this is using a token. It’s not using your physical number. This makes it more safe for your transaction. If you lose it, you can actually block and cancel it,” Jibril said.
The bank’s card control features have been designed with a high degree of user autonomy, allowing customers to block, unblock, or geographically restrict their cards at will. The system also includes safeguards against recurring online charges, giving users visibility into active subscriptions and enabling cancellations without needing to close the entire account.
For merchants, particularly small and informal ones, Premier Bank is introducing software-based POS alternatives that convert existing smartphones into payment acceptance tools thus removing the need for costly physical hardware. This feature could prove significant in a market where digital adoption often stalls at the point of transaction.
“What we are unveiling today is not just a digital interface, it’s actually a unified ecosystem that we have designed to ensure that we have full control of our ability to innovate, our ability to customize, and our ability also to do the things in the right way,” Chairman Jibril said.
The bank’s long-term strategy includes a reduction of physical branches. With only a modest footprint of brick-and-mortar outlets in Kenya, Premier Bank is betting that mobile-first infrastructure will ultimately out-compete legacy branch networks.
Over the years, traditional lenders have faced growing pressure to streamline onboarding, automate customer support, and embed financial services into e-commerce and lifestyle apps. Fintech startups and mobile-first banks have captured significant market share by offering faster, cheaper, and more accessible alternatives, forcing legacy institutions to modernize or risk irrelevance. In this landscape, digital products are no longer a differentiator but a requirement for survival.
