In a move expected to increase the acceptance and adoption of electronic payments in Africa, MasterCard has signed a deal with Ecobank to bring MasterCard’s payment solutions to more than 32 sub-Saharan African markets.
The multi-country licensing agreement will see Ecobank issue MasterCard debit, prepaid, and credit cards and other acceptance solutions to millions of its customers over the next 10 years.
In a statement, Albert Essien, Group Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank said: “The initiative enables us to extend our MasterCard acquiring capabilities at thousands of merchants across Africa, grow our e-commerce acquiring business, and expand our service offerings to retail and commercial customers in Africa.”
The partnership will see over 1300 Ecobank subsidiaries issue MasterCard-branded cards in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Ecobank Nigeria, the largest of the Ecobank Group’s 36 African subsidiaries, already began large-scale issuing of MasterCard payment products in April 2014.
Michael Miebach, President, Middle East and Africa at MasterCard added in a statement: “By collaborating with a leading pan-African financial institution such as the Ecobank Group with its extensive regional reach and established infrastructure, another successful step has been taken in ensuring access to safe, secure and convenient payments via MasterCard payment solutions.”
The new users across Africa will use Mastercard’s debot/credit cards at ATM locations and for payments at the till in 210 countries and territories. This will also help Ecobank to roll out thousands of mobile point of sale devices to retailers in selected African countries as well as introduce the MasterCard Payment Gateway Service in selected countries for online payments.
