This archive report was first published on 16 December 2019.
On December 16, 2019, Visa and African fintech leader MFS Africa announced a groundbreaking partnership that will revolutionize digital payments in Africa.
Under this partnership, MFS Africa will distribute Visa payment credentials across multiple markets in Africa, allowing mobile money users connected to the MFS Africa platform to generate an instant Visa virtual card and link it to their mobile money accounts.
This innovative solution will enable users to make seamless remittances and e-commerce transactions, leveraging the vast reach of the Visa network.
According to the World Bank, remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa are set to increase by over 5.6% between 2019 and 2020, reaching $51 billion. However, the region remains the most expensive in the world to send money to, with an average cost of 9.3 percent.
“In the past few years, we have been relentlessly focused on creating new digital pathways between mobile money users in Africa,” said Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa. “Having reached significant scale, we are now turning our focus to connecting our network to the wider world, to unleash the wealth of opportunity that trade with Africa presents to the global economy.”
“Africa is adopting a mobile-led, digital payments ecosystem, and with Visa looking to accelerate the distribution of payment credentials and expand the acceptance space for digital payments, this partnership is an important one,” said Jack Forestell, Executive Vice President, Chief Product Officer, Visa.
