Virtual cards, without the integration maze

This month, Afghanistan’s HesabPay plans to launch up to 1 mn Visa cards through Visa Pay — scaling a virtual-card program from inside its existing app, without stitching together multiple vendors for card management, processing, 3-D Secure, and other capabilities. Visa is now expanding the same SDK-led model to additional issuers across 11 markets in Africa and Central Asia, including Ghana, Tanzania, and Sudan.

For issuers, the SDK does the heavy lifting: it embeds into a bank, fintech, or mobile money operator’s existing mobile app, with issuer processing, tokenization, 3-D Secure, and Visa-certified compliance already inside. Banked and unbanked users can get virtual cards linked to their accounts or mobile wallets for e-commerce, remittances, person-to-person transfers, and humanitarian disbursements. Tap to Pay is next on the roadmap.

Early adopters include markets where digital access can carry a heavier load. In Sudan, banking leaders described digital payment solutions as critical to customer convenience, business continuity, and financial inclusion. They also highlighted the need for secure local and international e-commerce and peer-to-peer transactions via virtual Visa cards linked to customer accounts.

For institutions in infrastructure-constrained markets, Visa Pay brings the payment plumbing into the mobile app customers already trust.