Cellulant and Mastercard Team to Provide Virtual Cards for African Businesses

Cellulant, a pan-African payment company, announced that it will deploy Mastercard’s virtual card technology to enable payments for Cellulant customers.

Thanks to the partnership, Cellulant customers across Africa can shop and pay with global merchants wherever Mastercard is accepted, including online transactions, according to a Tuesday (Oct. 25) press release.

In a region where large populations don’t have access to a bank account, virtual cards have been touted as a way to tackle financial exclusion and empower Africa’s unbanked consumers with digital payment methods.

Read more: Virtual Cards Aid Expense Management, Financial Inclusion

For Cellulant’s business clients, virtual cards offer a path to digitization, the payment technology firm said in the release.

Thanks to faster settlement of day-to-day payments, better management of customer and supplier relationships and minimized fraud risk, virtual cards offer a better alternative to cash transactions without sacrificing the ease of use and inclusivity that makes cash appealing.

“Mastercard’s technology enables our digital partners to redefine their consumer’s digital commerce interactions and experiences,” Mastercard Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Amnah Ajmal said in the announcement. “By focusing on the provision of multi-use, omnichannel digital payment solutions, Mastercard is enabling its partners, such as Cellulant, to improve their operational efficiency, diversify their revenue, and transition seamlessly into digital commerce.

“We see the increasing proliferation of FinTechs as a strategic opportunity to add value by creating more connections, better user experiences and greater choice for consumers.”

“We believe seamless payment experiences are the backbone for accelerating economic growth across Africa,” Cellulant Group Chief Revenue Officer David Waithaka said in the release. “MSMEs are the driving force for Africa’s economy and our work in digitizing payments for businesses and their consumers enables the requisite foundation for innovation, economic development and financial inclusion.”

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.