American Express has signed a deal with Barclays (Barclaycard) and the Am-Ex card will be available in Kenya from May 1. Barclays currently issues Visa cards, but so many banks (KCB, NBK, Co-op, CBA, Prime etc) now have cards from Visa that they no longer have the prestige and exclusivity that Barclays wants to project.

Operations will be processed via Barclaycard centre, Nairobi and the Am-Ex card will later be rolled out in eight other African countries.