Airtel Africa Partners Mastercard to Launch Airtel Money

• Airtel Africa Partners Mastercard to Launch Airtel Money

Airtel Africa has partnered with Mastercard to deepen payments and connect 100 million consumers across Africa.

In a statement released by Airtel Africa through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the telecom giant said “Airtel Africa today announced a partnership with Mastercard, giving over 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users across 14 African countries access to Mastercard’s global network.”

The company said Airtel Money customers can now make payment online with their Airtel Money Mastercard (a Virtual card) without a bank account.

“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. 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,” the company stated in the statement.

Also, Airtel Money customers will benefit from preferential foreign exchange rates for international payments and competitive pricing, gain access to other local payments like bill payments, merchants payments, etc.

Commenting on the new deal, Raghunath Mandava, the CEO of Airtel Africa 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 to make safe mobile money purchases online and in person. The partnership will also significantly bolster Airtel’s position as one of 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.”

Amnah Ajmal, the executive Vice President for Market Development, Mastercard Middle East and Africa, 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”.