Airtel Africa, Mastercard Seal Digital Payments Deal
Airtel Africa has said it is collaborating with Mastercard, giving
over 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users across 14 African
countries access to Mastercard’s global network. A statement from
Airtel explained that the Mastercard virtual (non-plastic) card allows
Airtel Money customers, even those without a bank account, to make
payments to local and global online merchants that accept Mastercard
cards, while ensuring that the customer’s financial data is always
secure and private.
“Airtel Money customers will also be able to make in-person payments
at outlets via Quick Response (QR) codes (whereby payments are made
from an Airtel mobile phone by scanning the QR code displayed at
checkout or by entering a merchant identifier, at any location
worldwide that Mastercard QR is accepted”, it said.
To date, there are over 1 million merchant locations across Africa
that accept Mastercard QR payments.
Airtel Money customers will also benefit from competitive pricing and
preferential exchange rates for international payments, and gain
access to other domestically relevant use cases including bill
payments, merchants payments and value added services such as cash
management solutions.
The CEO of Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, said, “Airtel and
Mastercard have a shared passion for digital transformation and making
mobile financial services accessible to everyone across the continent.
Through our partnership we will enable over 100 million Airtel Africa
customers make safe mobile money purchases online and in person. The
partnership will also significantly bolster Airtel’s position as one
of the the largest offline-to-online digital payment network in
Africa. We are really excited to embark on this partnership with a
globally trusted brand like Mastercard. This partnership is truly
revolutionary in our market, giving millions of people better access
to the digital and online world.”
Executive Vice President for Market Development, Mastercard Middle
East and Africa, Amnah Ajmal, said, “Across the MEA region our digital
partnerships strategy remains focused on enabling digital
transformation for our partners so that their consumers can enjoy
seamless access to payments and a superior experience. We are very
excited to partner with Airtel to lead the transition to digital by
enabling access to their millions of consumers for online and
in-person payments across the globe. Mastercard is uniquely positioned
as a single technology provider to enable our digital partners like
Airtel to transition seamlessly into digital”.
