Mastercard and African Development Bank Group to Provide Digital Identities

Mastercard and the African Development Bank Group formed an alliance to provide digital access to critical services to 100 million people and businesses in Africa over the next 10 years.

The first efforts of the organizations’ Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Africa will include providing digital identities and access to high-quality seeds and agricultural inputs to 3 million farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria, according to a Friday (May 24) press release.

Following the pilot program launched in partnership with local banks, the alliance plans to expand to the rest of the continents, according to the release.

“Across Africa, people are driving new growth and opportunity, and Mastercard wants to support their success,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said in the release.

Over the next five years, Mastercard will register 15 million users in Africa onto Community Pass, its platform that digitizes and connects remote, underserved communities to governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector, per the release.

The African Development Bank Group will support programs of the MADE Alliance: Africa by investing $300 million to fund digital infrastructure and incentivize public and private partners to enhance digital access, according to the release.

Digitalization will increase the adoption of agricultural technologies and increase the incomes of African smallholder farmers, African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said in the release.

“Joining the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy Alliance: Africa will amplify and multiply the impact of the bank’s investments to build sustainable, climate-smart food systems across the continent,” Adesina said.

In March, Mastercard partnered with MTN Group Fintech to help consumers and small businesses across Africa transact through mobile payments.

With this partnership, Mastercard’s technology will support MTN’s FinTech platform, which has 290 million subscribers and 60 million active monthly MTN Mobile Money wallets.

In January, Mastercard teamed up with banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider 4thWave to streamline B2B payment flows for businesses in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The partnership will use 4thWave’s supply chain finance platform for managing B2B payments to help Mastercard’s commercial customers.