MasterCard, MTN Partner to Boost Digital Commerce, Payments

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

A partnership aimed at driving acceleration of the mobile money ecosystem in Africa across 13 markets has been entered into between Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech.

This is coming shortly after the payments giant completed the purchase of a minority stake in the telecommunications company.

The deal will see Mastercard giving a prepaid virtual card tailored for MTN’s MoMo customers, granting them access to over 100 million acceptance points worldwide.

Additionally, it will empower MoMo merchants to seamlessly accept card payments, enhancing the platform’s instant cross-border money remittance services and capabilities.

Further, Mastercard will use its cutting-edge technology and capabilities to support MTN’s ambition to become Africa’s largest fintech platform for both merchants and consumers.

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.

“Our innovation strategy is based on collaboration. We are very proud of our partnership with MTN which will enable digital commerce for millions of people in Africa.

“In addition, mobile money solutions can be greatly beneficial for SMEs, enabling growth through seamless commercial operations, wider payments acceptance, access to affordable credit, and secure digital tools,” the Executive Vice President for Market Development EEMEA at Mastercard, Amnah Ajmal, said.

“When there is a mutual vision – in this case to bring access, progress, financial inclusion, and prosperity to people – the road to partnership is a simple one.

“We look forward to working with Mastercard as a partner that is also committed to the enablement of more people and businesses through the collaboration into best-in-class apps, superior user experiences, safe transactions, secure remittances, new use cases, and expanded acceptance,” the chief executive of MTN Fintech, Serigne Dioum, commented.

Africa is home to over 1.3 billion people and only about 43 per cent are banked with over 90 per cent of all payments and transactions made via cash, and of the total population, 45 per cent have mobile money accounts.

“Over the past five years, Mastercard and MTN have joined together to support several mobile money programs across Africa, helping people to make payments through global platforms, thus bringing more people into the financial mainstream.