MoMo subscribers will soon get prepaid virtual cards to aid their payment options, MTN Group has disclosed.
Mastercard will power the cards, which is part of a collaboration between both firms to accelerate the telco’s mobile money ecosystem in the 13 African markets it currently operates. Both firms signed a multi-market agreement to improve transactions through secure mobile payments.
The partnership will grant MoMo customers access to over 100 million acceptance points worldwide and enhance merchants’ ability to accept card payments seamlessly, MTN Group revealed in a statement. A virtual and physical Mastercard companion card will be added to every MoMo wallet, the firm stated.
Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development EEMEA, Mastercard, noted that mobile money solutions greatly benefit SMEs, “enabling growth through seamless commercial operations, wider payments acceptance, access to affordable credit, and secure digital tools.”
Serigne Dioum, group chief executive officer of MTN Fintech, added, “We look forward to working with Mastercard as a partner that is also committed to the enablement of more people and businesses through the collaboration into best-in-class apps, superior user experiences, safe transactions, secure remittances, new use cases, and expanded acceptance.”
Also, the collaboration aims to grow international remittances via mobile money wallets by expanding consumer reach.
MTN has a subscriber base of 290 million, and 60 million actively use their MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets monthly. This new agreement will benefit 13 African markets, including Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
Mobile money adoption has been on the ascendency on the continent, and about 45 percent of Africans have mobile money accounts. In 2022, mobile money transaction value grew to $832 billion in 2022, according to GSMA.
