Airtel and Mastercard Expand Digital Banking Services Across 14 African Countries

Friday, October 11, 2019

Telecoms and mobile money services provider, Airtel Africa announced that it is partnering with Mastercard to give over 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users across 14 African countries access to Mastercard’s global network.

Through this collaboration, Airtel Money customers – even those without a bank account – should be able to make payments to local and global online merchants that accept Mastercard cards using their own virtual Mastercard. The digital card is said to be secure and private, ensuring that customers’ financial data is protected.

In addition, 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. To date, there are over 1 million merchant locations across Africa that accept Mastercard QR payments.

Photo courtesy of Håkan Dahlström.

Source: ITNewsAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance, Telecommunications
Tags
digital finance, digital payments, financial inclusion, fintech, telecommunications