Card Banking

Three Banks in Ethiopia, namely Awash International Bank (AIB) S.C., Nib International Bank (NIB) S.C. and United Bank (UB) S.C, have formed a “consortium” for launching a Shared Card Banking/ EFT Platform. Premier Switch Solutions S.C. (PSS) is the   name of the company that intends to have Card Banking/EFT Payment Platform.

Member Banks (AIB, NIB and UB) of PSS have set out Strategic objectives to the Premier Switch Solutions S.C. Following are some of the objectives of Member banks (MBs) of PSS.

1. Establish Member Banks’ (MBs’) ability to thrive in an ever-changing payment banking industry landscape.
  
2. Help MBs’ gainfully compete in the domestic and cross-border payment services market space.
  
3. Allow MBs’ replace or regain the ever-dwindling correspondent banking based revenue stream.
  
4. Enable MBs’ acquire state-of-the-art, scalable, mutable and interoperable payment services platform that seamlessly integrates the domestic and cross-border leg of payment transaction.
  
5. Persuasively partner with the incumbent telecom operator, the Ethiopia Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) , with a win-win proposition in hand, which affords to enhance value addition on and extraction from the infrastructure deployed by both the incumbent and banks.
  
6. Aggressively strive to meet the ever-changing payment services demand of whole spectrum of customers, ranging from the corporate to the individual and from government to non-government.
  
7. Advance-deploy a supportive infrastructure that complements and enriches the NBE (National Bank of Ethiopia) initiative in the area of RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement ) and ACH (Automatic Clearing House) and related services.
   

INVITATION FOR BIDS
BID No. 001/2010 
Supply and Installation of Card Based/EFT Payment Platform.

  
1. Three banks in Ethiopia, namely Awash International Bank S.C., Nib International Bank S.C., United Bank S.C. have formed A “Company”, named Premier Switch Solutions S.C. (PSS), for launching a shared card payment/ EFT Platform.
  
2. The Premier Switch Solutions S.C invites sealed bids from eligible and qualified bidders for the Design, Deployment, Operation and Knowledge Transfer of Shared Switch for Card Based/EFT Payment Platform.
  
3. The RFP allows proposal from national and international firm(s) as single bidder or joint venture. However, in case of joint venture, the RFP requires one prime bidder duly authorized to represent the joint venture members and take overall responsibility for the execution of the project.
  
4.  Bidding will be conducted through the Competitive Bidding and is open to all Bidders.
  
5. Interested bidders can obtain the bid document upon payment of a nonrefundable USD 100 or equivalent  in local currency at the prevaialing rate on the date of purchase starting from August 6, 2010 during office hours  from:

7. Each bid must be presented in a sealed envelope and strictly in accordance with the instruction of bidders indicated in the bid document.
  
8. The bidder has the right to cancel the bid partially or totally.