Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech Forge Strategic Partnership to Expand Mobile Money Services Across Africa

In a landmark multi-market agreement, Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech have joined forces to introduce a prepaid virtual card within MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) ecosystem. The deal is set to significantly broaden the scope of Mobile Money services across 13 African markets, fostering financial inclusion and providing innovative payment solutions.

Under this collaboration, MTN MoMo users will be equipped with a prepaid virtual card, enabling seamless point-of-sale payments directly from their MoMo wallets. Merchants will also benefit, gaining the capability to accept card payments, thereby enhancing the overall payment experience for both users and businesses.

“The prepaid virtual card tailored for MTN’s MoMo customers will grant them access to more than 100 million acceptance points worldwide,” stated MTN in an official announcement. This development is poised to empower MoMo merchants, facilitating effortless acceptance of card payments and bolstering the platform’s cross-border money remittance services.

Currently, MTN boasts 60 million active MoMo wallets out of its 290 million subscribers, showcasing the substantial reach and potential impact of this collaboration. The agreement covers subscribers in 13 African markets, including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.

This strategic partnership follows Mastercard’s recent investment of US$200 million, acquiring a minority stake in MTN Group Fintech. The collaboration seeks to support various mobile money programs across Africa, aiming to bring a significant portion of the continent’s unbanked population—approximately 43% of 1.3 billion people—into the financial mainstream.

In addition to empowering individual users, small businesses utilizing MTN MoMo will receive valuable tools, including Mastercard’s SME-in-a-Box solution. This solution facilitates the online migration of small businesses by enabling them to accept a diverse range of digital payments at a low cost.

Mastercard’s overarching goal is to bring a billion people and 50 million SMEs into the global digital economy by 2025, with the partnership with MTN representing a crucial step towards achieving this ambitious target. The collaboration not only enhances financial inclusion but also advances the adoption of digital payment solutions, fostering economic growth and resilience across the African continent.