By Chinwendu Obienyi and Chukwuma Umeorah
In a move aimed at reshaping the financial services landscape in Africa, Access Bank and Mastercard have announced a strategic partnership to enhance cross-border transactions across the African continent.
The Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank, Chizoma Okoli, speaking at the launch in Lagos recently, said that the partnership signals a significant milestone in the quest for innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of customers in an increasingly interconnected world.
According to her, “We are positioning ourselves to meet our customers’ needs and deliver excellent services. Our services currently exists in countries where we have our subsidiaries, but our partnership with Mastercard reaffirms our commitment to innovation and underscores our focus on providing the services that our customers require not just in Africa, but on a global scale.”
Divisional President for Africa at Mastercard, Mark Elliot emphasized the importance of collaboration in driving innovation and financial inclusion as it will foster economic progress in Africa with a shared commitment to leveraging technology.
According to him, “Cross-border remittances are integral to Africa’s economy. With remittance flows from sub-Saharan expected to have increased by about 2 per cent to $54 billion this year. In 2024, the World Bank predicts that the remittance flows in the region will increase by 2.5 per cent and we will have an opportunity through solutions like this to actually grow remittance pie to be even bigger.”
Elliot added, “We are working tirelessly to advance financial inclusion initiatives and deliver on this goal of connecting one billion people to the digital economy by 2025. This includes 50 million small businesses and 25 million women small enterprises. The power of financial inclusion lies in its ability to transform the lives and uplift communities.
He noted that the ever-increasing challenges such as operating costs, slow delivery speeds, and the lack of transparency affects transactions within the space. He added that the synergy between Mastercard and Access Africa would address some of that friction benefiting individuals, businesses, and economies across the continent.
Both parties assured customers of adopting the highest security standards and innovation to ensure transactions are well secure while delivering the best and reliable payment solution.