Mastercard has purchased a minority stake in the fintech business unit of African mobile phone network MTN.
MTN last year began a search for new investors in the business after splitting it off from its core telecoms operations. The company, which has obtained a mobile banking licence in Nigeria, saw the volume of transactions increase by 37% to 8.3 billion from 61 million active users in the first half of the year.
Mastercard's investment into the business is based on a 16x multiple on a total enterprise valuation of about US$5.2 billion.
MTM says the card scheme will support the growth of the fintech business’s payments and remittance services
The deal follows an earlier $100 million investment by Mastercard two years ago in MTN's chief rival Airtel Africa.