Payments technology firm Mastercard has partnered with Egypt’s smart payment solutions provider Bee to expand mobile wallets payments options across the country.
Bee allows mobile wallet users to pay directly through the application and avail payments to more than 25 billers electronically simply by using their wallets supported by Bee retail network that consists of 32,000 outlets nationwide. Mastercard, brings on board technology, scale and capacity to consumers, helping accelerate the world’s move towards greater financial inclusion by driving innovations in payment solutions.
“Our global experience in the payment solutions industry allows us to address specific payment pain points and offer tailored and convenient solutions to any service provider at any scale of business,” said Muzaffar Kamilov, Managing Director, Bee. “We share Mastercard’s belief that by processing payments we provide unbanked individual the opportunity to participate in the formal economy. By partnering with Mastercard, we cater to the needs of the unbanked and our customers can now benefit from the added value of a secure, fast and efficient interoperable system.”
Approximately 85 percent of the population lacks access to formal banking products, although Egypt has more than 100 percent mobile penetration rate. Currently there are more than 4.5 million mobile wallet users, which represents a significant milestone towards scaling Egypt’s mobile ecosystem, and affirms the interoperability concept Mastercard brought to the Egyptian market.
By taking advantage of Mastercard’s interoperable mobile ecosystem, mobile wallets have helped provide millions of mobile users, whether banked or unbanked, the ability to make utility bill payments and transfer funds, pay online and physical merchants, cash-in and cash-out from Agent networks and ATMs by simply using their phones.
