After signing Centenary Bank in February this year, Interswitch, the Ugandan interbank switch operator, has reported a dramatic rise in monthly transactions and is now seeking to enlist other large banks considered critical for commercial survival.

Interswitch East Africa, a subsidiary of Interswitch Transactional headquartered in Nigeria operates a network that links different banks to enable their customers to share automated teller machines (ATMs) and point of sale (POS) services.

Centenary’s presence on the banking switch has increased overall networked ATMs to 279 from 133 last year, with around one million clients served by the platform during the same period. The number of financial institutions registered on the switch rose to 38 in February.

The entry of Centenary Bank, which boasted 146 ATMs, 61 branches and a customer base of 1.3 million by last year, was a turning point for the switch operator, which had long struggled to attract major industry players to its platform.

Latest figures compiled by Interswitch indicate total monthly transactions recorded on the platform rose five times at the end of March compared with January.

Total transactions recorded on the platform were 1.4 billion at the end of January but increased to 1.8 billion by close of February.

By end of March, total transactions had reached five billion, a record high in Interswitch’s operating history, with the company projecting similar robust activity in April.

Interswitch attributed the growth to advertising campaigns promoting Centenary’s participation in the switch and late school fees payment by parents rushing to beat first term deadlines in March.

While the advertising campaign seemingly prompted many non Centenary customers onto the platform to take advantage of its vast network, fairly high numbers of Centenary clients exploited partner ATMs located in strategic urban zones for transactions, observers say.

Interswitch is already counting on these gains to boost its marketing pitch to other big banks.

“Though we anticipate higher growth in April, we foresee more stable transaction patterns after May, due to falling excitement among users. Negotiations with leading banks that include Stanbic Uganda, Stanchart Uganda, Crane Bank and Barclays are still ongoing but we are optimistic about signing another big player before the end of this year,” said Olumuyiwa Asagba, Interswitch’s chief executive officer.