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Money moves quietly until it doesn’t. When payments slow, fail, or fracture, economies feel it instantly. In a region like the Middle East and Africa, where populations are young, commerce is increasingly digital, and borders still shape how money flows, the infrastructure behind those transactions matters more than most people realise.
That critical infrastructure is what Network International provides and operates. Headquartered in the UAE, the company processes payments across 56 markets, is fully compliant and authorised, and has local teams on the ground, with a footprint that extends into 49 countries across Africa.
Its systems power everyday commerce, bank settlements, government programmes, and cross-border trade, largely unseen but critical to how money circulates.
In February last year, Murat Cagri Suzer stepped into the role of group CEO at a moment when scale alone was no longer enough. The company was navigating a merger, rising regulatory expectations, rapid shifts in consumer behaviour, and a technology landscape being reshaped by AI, real-time data, and new forms of money. The question facing the business was no longer how big it was, but what it could become.
Suzer arrived with more than two decades of experience across payments, fintech, and digital banking. Before joining Network International, he held senior leadership roles at BBVA in both the US and Turkey, encompassing payments, cryptocurrency, consumer and digital banking, as well as corporate and investment banking. He was also part of BBVA’s global strategy and planning team. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, advising clients across financial services, telecoms, and consumer goods, after starting out at Danone.
An engineer by training with an MBA from INSEAD, Suzer has also served on several industry and advisory boards across the global payments ecosystem. But the challenge ahead was not theoretical. It was operational. How do you run a payments platform that spans numerous markets, currencies, regulators, and risk environments, while turning transactions into insight and infrastructure into advantage?
In this conversation with Gulf Business editor Neesha Salian, Suzer breaks down the move from traditional processing to an insights-led future and explains why the Middle East and Africa remain the ultimate testing ground for fintech.
You stepped into the CEO role early last year. From your seat, how would you describe the last few months and the strategy taking shape?
What attracted me to Network International is that it’s a truly unique payments platform. We operate across 56 markets in the Middle East and Africa, with local teams and central bank licences in those markets. No other payment company in the region can say that.
But the real opportunity is what you can build on top of that platform. Payments provide insight into economic activity in real time. Used responsibly and confidentially, that data can help businesses, governments, and entire ecosystems operate better.
Take something simple like traffic flow. If we see transaction volumes spike in one part of a city, that usually means more people, more activity. That insight can help optimise taxi routes, logistics, or staffing. For small businesses, the value is even more direct.
How so?
Let’s say you’re a restaurant heading into Ramadan. We can show you how your sales performed last Ramadan, how you compare to similar restaurants nearby, where your average transaction sits, and whether repeat customers are lower than peers. That allows you to make very practical decisions, pricing, promotions, and loyalty campaigns, based on facts rather than guesswork.
This is why we see ourselves not just as a payments company, but as an insights-led fintech platform. That shift to a global scale fintech company is core to our long-term strategy.
Tell us about how the UAE has proven to be fertile ground for Network International’s ambitions.
The UAE’s emerging digital economy, coupled with a highly supportive regulatory environment and a proactive government vision, presented a unique opportunity to build essential digital payment infrastructure, offer card processing, and drive e-commerce, directly supporting the nation’s goal for a cashless society.
Network International was an early enabler of digital and e-commerce payments in the region, allowing us to leverage data, technology, and innovation to reimagine payments and fintech.
This supportive ecosystem has enabled Network International to take leading roles in emerging payment technologies.
Scale is key to executing your vision for leadership in this area. Is that what’s driving recent mergers and partnerships?
Exactly. To build a global-scale fintech company, you need scale. That’s the logic behind the merger of Network International and Magnati, which we completed in October last year and the partnerships we’re forming across the region.
We also agreed to acquire RAKBANK’s merchant acquiring business in the UAE, bringing approximately 5,000 merchants into our ecosystem in a transaction expected to close in early this year, subject to regulatory approvals. Through this agreement, we look forward to extending our advanced payments technology and data capabilities to RAKBANK’s merchant base, supporting the growth ambitions of SMEs and large corporates alike. We also see strong potential in Ras Al Khaimah, where economic diversification and business-friendly reforms are creating real momentum.
Most recently, the company became the first payments platform in the UAE to enable regulated stablecoin acceptance through a partnership with Al Maryah Community Bank (MBank).
All of this reflects our ambition to be a long-term partner in the country’s development and a catalyst for innovation across the wider UAE and MEA region.
Africa is a major part of that story. What’s your strategy there?
Africa is one of the fastest-growing payments markets in the world. Infrastructure is still catching up, but mobile wallets and digital payments are growing rapidly. There’s also strong demand for faster, cheaper payment rails.
We’re already present in 49 African countries, which makes us the most geographically penetrated fintech platform on the continent. Our role is to work closely with regulators, governments, banks, and enterprises to build the right infrastructure. Africa is not a side market for us. It’s strategic, and it’s growing fast.
Innovation is a big theme for Network International. Where is your focus today?
There are two layers. The first is core payments innovation. Payment’s success still comes down to two fundamentals, security and authorisation rates. If your authorisation rate drops by 1 per cent, you lose 1 per cent of revenue. That’s real money.
Because we learn across 56 markets, we continuously improve authorisation performance. When we solve a problem in one country, everyone benefits. That learning loop is a major competitive advantage that enables us to offer the highest authorisation rates.
The second layer is acceptance. People travel, shop, and pay differently. Our job is to make sure whatever payment method they prefer works seamlessly. Our POS systems accept global card schemes, local schemes, wallets, and alternative payment methods.
And beyond traditional payments?
We’ve recently launched a new app for small businesses, which is rolling out to merchants this year. It gives them real-time visibility into transactions, refunds, chargebacks, and settlements, along with access to early settlement if they need liquidity.
It also connects them to SME lending through multiple banks, using transaction data to improve approval odds and pricing.
We’re also working with enterprise partners on agentic commerce. In simple terms, bots pay bots on behalf of humans. If consumers delegate routine purchases to AI agents, merchants need to be ready for that. We’re building the infrastructure in between so our merchants aren’t caught off guard.
On top of that, we’ve been appointed by the UAE Central Bank to champion CBDC acceptance and have signed to support regulated stablecoins, including AE Coin. Our role is to enable choice. If it’s regulated, merchants should be able to accept it.
What are the biggest challenges you’re discussing internally?
Speed. What we’re building requires dozens of agile teams delivering in parallel. Speed of execution determines relevance for customers and for economies trying to digitise.
That also means hiring, training, and aligning talent across many markets. Building the team is as critical as building the technology.
There’s a lot of debate around AI and jobs. How do you see it?
AI is already improving productivity across fraud, reconciliation, sales, and operations. But we’re not at a point where it’s eliminating jobs at scale. In fact, it’s creating new roles.
AI systems can develop bias over time. That means you need to build teams to train AI on culture, diversity, and fairness. Every new technology creates new opportunities. The people who adapt and reskill will benefit.
Looking ahead, what trends will define payments in 2026 and beyond?
First, seamlessness. Payments are becoming frictionless and embedded, but that creates a need for transparency, so consumers understand where their data is stored.
Second, borderless payments. Domestic payments are fast and cheap. Cross-border payments are still not. That gap will close, whether through new rails, blockchain-based solutions, or regulatory alignment.
And third, AI. Not as a buzzword, but as an operational engine across the entire payments stack.
Finally, how would you describe your leadership style?
Two things matter to me. Delivering on what we say, because credibility builds trust. And maintaining positivity. This is a demanding business, but culture matters. When people feel positive and aligned, execution follows.
