Mastercard Partners With OPay to Promote Advance Digital Financial Inclusion for Millions

Mastercard and fintech firm OPay have launched a strategic relationship that will bring digital commerce to millions of people across Africa and the Middle East, paving the way for greater financial inclusion and economic development.

Thanks to a Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to the OPay eWallet, OPay users and merchants throughout the area – including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and the UAE – may engage with brands and businesses anywhere in the world.

This collaboration is the latest step in Mastercard’s emerging market strategy, which involves the technology company collaborating with fast-growing Fintechs like OPay to expand access to digital payments, enable a variety of lifestyle services, create new financial inclusion pathways, and support the next generation of super-apps.

Consumers are increasingly asking for a single platform that allows them to do numerous daily tasks more easily, such as sending and receiving money, ordering meals and groceries, scheduling transportation, lending, investing, and putting products for sale.

Customers using the Mastercard virtual payment solution linked to their OPay wallets will be able to shop at well-known global businesses for leisure, travel, lodging, entertainment, streaming services, and more during the initial phase of this cooperation. Regardless of whether or not the customer has a bank account, the service is provided. Small business owners can also buy from suppliers in other countries and pay with a secure virtual payment solution.

“At Mastercard, our innovation strategy is founded in partnerships to achieve inclusion at scale,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President for Market Development, EEMEA. Our collaboration with OPay reflects our commitment to assisting payment providers around the world in building a global payments ecosystem that benefits a diverse range of consumers with different demands.”

“As the leading fintech in the Middle East and Africa, we are delighted to be partnering with Mastercard as we continue on our mission to promote financial inclusion, helping to open up the global economy to more consumers and businesses across the Middle East and Africa,” said Yahui Zhou, CEO of OPay.

OPay’s active customers have risen to 15 million in the dozens of locations where it operates since it began operations in 2018. On a daily basis, the company executes millions of transactions. Users in Nigeria, where OPay has a large market share, have saved billions of dollars in the previous four years through credit-linked savings accounts from their mobile wallets and small loans from OPay-partnered lenders.

In the next three to five years, plans are in place to offer OPay services in other markets, accelerating the expansion of digital inclusion and digital commerce while also expanding OPay client involvement in the global economy.

Mastercard has declared a global commitment to financial inclusion, pledging to integrate 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small companies into the digital economy by 2025, with a focus on 25 million women entrepreneurs.