Mastercard says it is working with Africa’s major wallet providers to expand Pay Local, its newly-introduced payment service that enables card-based payments through local wallets, across the continent.
As part of its push into Africa, Mastercard is collaborating with major wallet providers such as MTN Fintech, Airtel Africa, JazzCash, and M-Pesa to expand acceptance points across the continent, according to the payments giant.
Through this new service, “Mastercard cardholders can simply link their credit or debit cards to a participating local digital wallet to shop at merchants without needing to set up or top up a prepaid account,” the company says.
As part of its push into Africa, Mastercard says it is collaborating with major wallet providers such as MTN Fintech, Airtel Africa, JazzCash, and M-Pesa to expand acceptance points across the continent.
“Mastercard continues to set new standards for the payments industry by offering global solutions that make a local impact,” Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard says. “Our work with domestic networks and alternative payment methods underscores our dedication to delivering meaningful innovation. With Mastercard Pay Local, we are expanding the boundaries of acceptance.”
Mastercard working with major wallet providers to grow Pay Local in Africa
As part of its push into Africa, Mastercard says it is collaborating with major wallet providers such as MTN Fintech, Airtel Africa, JazzCash, and M-Pesa to expand acceptance points across the continent. These partnerships seek to address the challenges faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), many of which currently lack the infrastructure to accept traditional card payments.
Building on its established partnerships across Asia Pacific—with wallets like DANA in Indonesia, Touch ‘n Go in Malaysia, Bakong in Cambodia, and LankaPay in Sri Lanka—Mastercard aims to give consumers seamless payment access at over 35 million merchant locations globally. “The service is also geared towards markets where digital wallets are widely used for everyday purchases, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” Mastercard stated.
In addition, Pay Local expands upon Mastercard’s existing alliances with major digital wallets, including Alipay and Weixin Pay in China and Octopus in Hong Kong, making it convenient for international travelers to make payments as locals do, regardless of where their Mastercard card was issued, the company says.
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