Mobile Finance

Mastercard enhances digital payment offering in Africa

Payment giant Mastercard is back in the news in Africa with digital finance announcements affecting consumers in Sierra Leone and businesses in five other African countries.

The launch of the Orange Money Mastercard in Sierra Leone, developed in partnership with Zenith Bank Sierra Leone and Mastercard, is described as a move aimed at expanding digital payments and improving financial inclusion in the country.

The new solution introduces a virtual Mastercard linked directly to Orange Money wallets, allowing customers to make secure online payments, access international digital services, and carry out global transactions using their mobile accounts.

The platform is designed to simplify cross-border transactions and enhance user convenience, enabling faster and more efficient payment systems, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.

This news follows hard on the heels of an announcement by Mastercard and South African fintech infrastructure company Scale that they are advancing their collaboration with the aim of simplifying card issuance for fintech companies and non-financial institutions across Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This collaboration introduces a unified integration capability designed to help innovators bring virtual and physical card programmes to market more efficiently, reducing the complexity traditionally associated with launching issuing services.

Across many African markets, the partners explain, organisations seeking to offer card-based payment solutions must coordinate with multiple stakeholders, including payment networks, Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsors, and issuing banks, a process that is often slow and complex.

Mastercard and Scale say they are helping to address this challenge through a single integration approach that streamlines onboarding, processing and compliance requirements, enabling businesses to focus on customer-centric solutions while the combined platform manages operational delivery.



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