Absa Bank Kenya, Kenya Airways and Visa have launched the Asante Global Card, a credit card that earns Kenya Airways Asante Rewards Points on every transaction and lets holders spend those points across the Kenya Airways network. The three announced it on 31 August 2026. It goes on sale to eligible customers on 1 September, with applications at asante.kenya-airways.com.
There are two versions:
- New Asante Global Signature cardholders get a welcome bonus of 10,000 Asante Rewards Points.
- Asante Global Platinum holders get 5,000. Points accrue on everything the card is used for, including groceries, fuel, dining, travel and international payments.
On top of the points, the card comes with airport lounge access, travel and medical insurance, extra baggage allowance, SkyPriority services, and invitations to golf tournaments and wine tastings.
The release does not give the earn rate. It does not say how many points a KES 100 purchase generates, how many points buy a Nairobi to London ticket, what the annual fee is, what the interest rate is, or what income a customer needs to qualify.
About that “first”
The release says the Asante Global Card “is the first to unite an airline, a bank and a payments network in the Kenyan market”. Barclays Bank of Kenya, Kenya Airways and Visa launched the KQ Msafiri Visa Credit Card in November 2012. The Msafiri card earned miles on Visa purchases anywhere in the world, redeemable for Kenya Airways travel, and came with travel insurance and priority check-in. Barclays Bank of Kenya became Absa Bank Kenya on 10 February 2020. The same three organisations did this 14 years ago.
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What has genuinely changed is the loyalty programme underneath. When the Msafiri card ran, Kenya Airways had no frequent flyer scheme of its own and put its passengers into Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue. That ended during the pandemic, and Kenya Airways launched Asante Rewards in June 2023 with four tiers: Silver, Ruby, Gold and Platinum.
Fourteen months from agreement to card
Kenya Airways and Visa announced the co-brand agreement itself on 30 June 2025, and we covered it at the time. Julius Thairu, Chief Commercial and Customer Officer at Kenya Airways, promised points redeemable for flights and upgrades, lounge access, priority boarding and extra baggage. Kenya Airways said the cards would launch later in 2025. That announcement named no issuing bank. 14 months later, Absa is the bank.
“We are seeing strong demand from Kenyan consumers for products that reward how they already spend and travel,” John Njoroge, Visa Country Manager said in the release.
Why each side wants this
Kenya Airways reported half-year results on 25 August 2026. Revenue rose 9% to KES 81.25 billion, and the loss after tax widened to KES 16.1 billion from KES 12.2 billion a year earlier. Fuel cost KES 29 billion, up 32%, and made up 52% of direct operating costs. The airline also told the market it flew 9% less capacity than a year before. Its own 2025 full-year results, published on 25 March 2026, showed passenger numbers down 13% and a KES 17.2 billion loss after tax, while the release’s boilerplate describes an airline carrying “over 5 million passengers annually”. A co-brand card ties frequent flyers to Kenya Airways without the airline having to add a single seat. Neither Absa nor Kenya Airways has said how the two split the economics.
Absa posted KES 10.5 billion in profit after tax for the first half of 2026 on 18 August, down from KES 11.7 billion, with non-interest income of KES 8.2 billion. Card fees sit in that line. The bank has spent this year pushing premium plastic: in February 2026 it launched Visa Infinite metal debit and credit cards with M-PESA Paybill and Till integration and USD 2.5 million in travel insurance, and in June 2025 it launched a Visa business credit card for MSMEs.
The wider card market is going the other way. Cards in circulation in Kenya fell to 13.26 million in the six months to June 2026 from 13.38 million a year earlier, and the value of card transactions dropped to KES 220.04 billion from KES 248.8 billion, according to the Central Bank of Kenya. Premium cards with rewards attached are one of the few parts of that market banks can still grow.
Applications open on 1 September. The two numbers to be keen on are the earn rate per shilling spent and the annual fee. Everything else the card offers, Absa was already selling for KES 8,000 a year.
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