Network International

Network International began in 1994 as the card-processing arm of Emirates Bank in Dubai. Today it processes cards for banks and acquires payments for merchants across the Middle East and Africa. After floating in London in April 2019, it was taken private in September 2024 by a consortium led by Brookfield for about £2.2 billion. In 2025 it merged with Magnati, another Brookfield-backed payments business, and the combined group is due to trade under the Network International name.

Merchants sell online through N-Genius Online. It offers a hosted payment page, a web SDK, a direct API, iOS and Android SDKs, a virtual terminal for phone orders and pay-by-link, plus plug-ins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, PrestaShop and OpenCart. The documentation lists Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB and UnionPay cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, and two UAE domestic options: the Jaywan card scheme and Aani instant payments. The Saudi product page adds mada, and since 2021 UAE merchants on the gateway can offer Tabby instalments. Saved cards, recurring payments, payouts to cards and bank accounts, 3-D Secure and dynamic currency conversion are all documented.

Network's own WooCommerce listing names seven markets for the gateway: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. In Saudi Arabia, Network International Arabia holds a major payment institution licence from the Saudi Central Bank, granted in February 2024, and in April 2024 the group gained a stored value facility licence from the Central Bank of the UAE.

Pricing is not published, and some features, such as Apple Pay on the hosted page, are switched on through a relationship manager, so expect a sales-led onboarding rather than instant self-service. Saudi sign-ups verify identity through the national Nafath service and need a linked bank account. The gateway suits merchants in the Gulf that want a local acquirer with domestic schemes such as mada and Jaywan on one contract.