MasterCard has signed its largest-ever deal for Masterpass, snagging an agreement with the Ecobank Group for the roll out of its QR code-based mobile payment service across 33 African countries.
Ecobank, which has set itself a goal of reaching 100 million customers by 2020, has already deployed the QR code flavour of Masterpass in Nigeria. The MoU with MasterCard will see the mobile person-to-merchant system implemented across the remaining 32 Pan-African countries by the end of 2016.
Users of Ecobank’s mobile banking platform across the 33 countries will be able to pay for online and in-store purchases by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code displayed at checkout on their smartphones, or by entering a merchant identifier into their feature phones.
Group CEO Ecobank, Ade Ayeyemi says the service addresses the challenges of expensive infrastructural issues associated with point of sale devices in Africa and eliminates the need for cash.
"We will use Masterpass QR to leverage the power of digital to bring millions of people into the formal financial sector,” he says.