Mastercard and OPay, a Nigerian fintech unicorn, launched a strategic agreement today to expand the service operations throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Thanks to a Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to the OPay eWallet, OPay users and merchants throughout the area – including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and the UAE – may engage with brands and businesses anywhere in the world.
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This collaboration is the latest step in Mastercard’s emerging market strategy, which involves the technology company collaborating with fast-growing Fintech companies like OPay to expand access to digital payments, enable a variety of lifestyle services, create new financial inclusion pathways, and support the next generation of super-apps.
Customers using the Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to their OPay wallets will be able to shop at well-known global businesses for leisure, travel, lodging, entertainment, streaming services, and more during the initial phase of this cooperation.
What Mastercard and OPay Partnership Offers To The Customer
Regardless of whether or not the customer has a bank account, the service is provided. Small business owners can also buy from suppliers in other countries and pay with a secure virtual payment solution.
“Partnerships are at the heart of Mastercard innovation approach, which supports inclusion at scale.” Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President for Market Development, Mastercard EEMEA, says, “Our partnership with OPay demonstrates our commitment to supporting payments providers around the world to create an interconnected global payments ecosystem that benefits a diverse range of consumers with unique needs.”
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“We are happy to be cooperating with Mastercard as we continue on our journey to promote financial inclusion, helping to open up the global economy to more people and businesses across the Middle East and Africa,” said Yahui Zhou, CEO of OPay.
OPay active customers have risen to 15 million in the dozens of locations where it operates since it began operations in 2018. On a daily basis, the company executes millions of transactions.
Users in Nigeria, where OPay has a large market share, have saved billions of dollars in the previous four years through credit-linked savings accounts from their mobile wallets and small loans from OPay-partnered lenders.
In the next three to five years, plans are in place to offer OPay services in other markets, accelerating the expansion of digital inclusion and digital commerce while also expanding OPay client involvement in the global economy.
Mastercard has declared a global commitment to financial inclusion, pledging to integrate 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small companies into the digital economy by 2025, with a focus on 25 million women entrepreneurs.
About Opay
OPay is a mobile-based payment, transportation, food and grocery delivery, and other key services in your daily life all in one place. OPay is used by millions of people every day to transfer and receive money, pay bills, and place food and grocery orders.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted OPay Digital Services Limited a license to operate a mobile money platform. Since its launch in June 2018, the company has expanded its services to include over 300,000 mobile money merchants in all 36 states of Nigeria. On this website and on OPay social media pages, unauthorized reproduction and/or dissemination of copyrighted materials is strictly banned.
