Libya's Wahda Bank Picks Backbase for Arabic-First Digital Banking Platform

The platform will be built in Arabic first and will also support English. Business customers will be able to open accounts online and manage payroll, bills and invoices in one app, according to the report. Staff in branches and contact centres will share a single workspace for handling customer requests.

The system will connect to Wahda Bank's existing core banking system and to Libya's instant payment infrastructure. Backbase will provide ready-built banking features, and the bank's own engineers will be able to build more services using software development kits.

"Wahda Bank has been a major contributor to Libya's economic growth and has consistently been at the forefront of digital transformation in the country," said Rami Benissa, the bank's chief executive. He said the Backbase partnership would give business and retail customers "Arabic-first digital banking on a platform our own engineers will keep extending."

The report did not give the value of the contract or a more precise launch date.

Payments Push

The agreement comes as Libya's central bank promotes wider adoption of electronic payments. In an economy that has long relied on cash, a large lender moving business customers onto online onboarding and digital payroll and invoicing could bring a significant number of companies onto the instant payment rails.

The approach also reflects a pattern seen across Middle East and North African banking. Rather than replace their core systems, lenders are adding a vendor-supplied digital layer on top of them while keeping in-house engineers to customise it. Starting with business customers before retail is less common, and suggests the bank sees corporate payroll and payments as the faster route to digital adoption.