Payment giant Mastercard has forged a new partnership with payment solution provider enza, with an aim to connect fintech companies across Africa to the Mastercard network.
Through the new collaboration, fintech players based in Africa will be able to build propositions on the enza platform that serve both consumers and businesses with embedded Mastercard payment solutions capabilities.
As part of the agreement, enza will host consumer and merchant accounts, manage integration with Mastercard’s network. Fintech companies will be able to configure pre-paid or post-paid accounts, and issue physical or virtual Mastercard cards. For businesses, enza will enable acceptance of Mastercard payments across in-store, online and in-app channels.
“Through our work with enza, fintech innovators in Africa will be able to deploy embedded payment capabilities more efficiently – helping accelerate financial inclusion and the region’s digital transformation,” explained Mete Guney, executive vice president, market development, EEMEA, at Mastercard.
Fintech companies in Africa will now be able to access the full suite of Mastercard services. The collaboration aims to reduce complexity and speed up time to market for emerging players building digital financial solutions across the continent.
Building a financially inclusive continent
Since 2020, the number of fintech companies in Africa has nearly tripled, according to a report by the European Investment Bank. Many of these emerging players are focused on embedding payment services into solutions that tackle financial access, offering alternatives to legacy systems that often have a high cost to serve.
“enza is on a mission to make digital payments more accessible and affordable across Africa, helping to build a more financially inclusive continent that is ready and able to compete globally,” added Andrew Key, executive director of enza.
Our collaboration with Mastercard leverages our existing relationship to more effectively serve the fintech community. Together, we will provide innovators with a platform capability that means they do not need to build this aspect of their proposition and can get to market with greater speed and security.”
Founded in 2023, enza’s payment infrastructure aims to increase competitiveness, capitalise on new markets and develop new revenue streams through better serving consumer and business customers across Africa.
