MTN's Mobile Money Platform to Integrate Mastercard Services

Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech have entered into a partnership agreement to provide all MTN MoMo (Mobile Money) customers with payment cards. As part of this collaboration, a virtual and physical Mastercard companion card will be integrated into every MoMo wallet, granting users access to over 100 million acceptance locations globally.

This initiative follows the recent agreement for a minority investment by Mastercard and MTN into MTN Group Fintech. The cards will be extended to all 60 million active monthly MoMo wallets across 13 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda.

The joint effort aims to leverage Mastercard’s technology to support MTN’s ambition of becoming Africa’s largest fintech platform. The partnership seeks to connect millions of people and small businesses across Africa to digital tools, fostering secure mobile payments and expanding access to the benefits of a cashless digital economy.

With Africa having a significant unbanked population, the collaboration is poised to strengthen local digital payment infrastructure and enhance financial inclusion. In addition to enabling regular transactions at payment terminals, the initiative will empower MoMo merchants to accept card payments.

Amnah Ajmal, Mastercard EMEA Market Development Vice President, expressed pride in the partnership, highlighting its potential to enable digital commerce for millions in Africa. The collaboration is expected to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering solutions for seamless commercial operations, wider payment acceptance, access to affordable credit, and secure digital tools.

The agreement will enable SMEs to set up e-commerce shopfronts, incorporating solutions such as QR enablement, Tap-on-Phone solutions, and digital card acceptance. Mastercard’s SME-in-a-Box, a low-cost payments solution facilitating online business setup and digital payments, will also be part of the offerings.

MTN Group Fintech CEO Serigne Dioum emphasized that the collaboration would enhance MoMo customers’ experiences, offering secure transactions, expanded acceptance, new use cases, and superior apps. Additionally, the partnership will allow Mastercard to provide its cybersecurity solutions to MTN operations, contributing to increased customer loyalty and trust.

Moreover, the initiative will extend the reach of mobile money remittance services, including both inward and cross-border remittances in Africa. The demand for international remittance services via mobile money wallets has been growing, reaching more than $2 billion in daily processed transactions, equivalent to over 40% of the GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2020, international remittances via mobile money wallets experienced a 65% year-over-year growth to around $1 billion.