Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech have signed a multi-market agreement that will use Mastercard’s technology and capabilities to support MTN’s ambition to become Africa’s largest fintech platform for both merchants and consumers.
This follows Mastercard and MTN’s recent agreement for a minority investment into MTN Group Fintech – the digital financial services arm of Africa’s largest mobile network operator.
With MTN’s overall subscriber base at 290 million and 60 million active monthly MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets, the agreement will impact 13 markets in Africa including Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
Africa is home to over 1.3 billion people and only about 43% are banked with over 90% of all payments and transactions made via cash. Of the total population, 45% have mobile money accounts. Over the past five years, Mastercard and MTN have joined together to support several mobile money programmes across Africa.
This collaboration, the partners say, will help strengthen local infrastructure for digital payments, support potential expansion of transactions in the future and drive financial inclusion through access to assets.
A virtual and physical Mastercard companion card will be added to every MoMo wallet allowing users access to over 100 million acceptance locations globally enabling MTN to scale up internationally.
With this access, Mastercard will also be able to provide its cybersecurity solutions to MTN’s operations.
The agreement will enable SMEs with payments acceptance solutions such as Mastercard’s SME-in-a-Box, a low-cost payments solution that enables small business owners to move their businesses online and accept a range of digital payments from their customers.
In addition, through the partnership, consumers will now have expanded reach for mobile money remittance services – both inward and cross-border remittances in Africa.
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