In a bid to foster seamless cross-border transactions across the African continent, Mastercard has launched a new partnership with Access Bank to extend the financial services of Access Africa to other countries across Africa.
This partnership will ensure secure and near real-time international payments through Access Bank branches and digital platforms beyond the 14 African countries where Access Africa currently has presence.
Senior Retail Adviser, Access Bank, Robert Giles, who spoke during the launch, described the partnership as a solution that speaks to one of Access Bank’s core vision of building a payment gateway from Africa to the world.
Giles said the Access Africa platform began in 2012, connecting two of Access Bank’s largest markets in Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, after which it grew to connect all of the countries of Access Bank’s presence in Africa to one another, allowing customers to make safe and affordable transactions.
He said, “The challenge we are tackling with this solution is one for the diaspora. The last check showed that there are 300 million people in the world living outside their countries of birth, and payment is a problem. What we are ensuring is that making payments will no longer be among the problems of living outside one’s country.
“Access Africa has developed beyond the 14 countries of presence in the last few years. We have partnered with multiple organisations to be able to send and receive money within and outside the continent.”
Divisional President for Africa, Mastercard, Mark Elliot, reiterated Mastercard’s vision to building and empowering an inclusive ecosystem, which informed its partnership with Access Bank to provide the cross-border payment solution.
He said, “Cross border remittances are integral to Africa’s economy. Remittances flowing to sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase by about 2% to 54 billion dollars this year.”
