Mastercard, the world’s second largest payment network, has announced a partnership with Mono, a Nigerian open-banking platform to provide businesses with a suite of products, powered by Mastercard Gateway.
The partnership involves embedding Mono’s open banking operations into Mastercard’s gateway to provide Account – to Account (A2A) payment services for businesses.
This collaboration holds opportunities for both companies and is expected to yield better products and services for customers.
For Mono,
this is a boost in its quest for expansion and profitability.
Abdul Hassan, CEO and co-founder of Mono explaining the importance of the collaboration said;
“This will bolster our efforts and expand our influence in Nigeria and the African region, allowing us to provide more innovative Open Banking payment solutions and contribute actively to the evolving needs of internet businesses and consumers in Africa.”
The startup has been working on stretching its operations from providing lenders with open banking APIs to servicing a wider range of fintechs and also increase revenue.
In its efforts, the startup had partnered with Flutterwave in 2022 to enable merchants to receive payment through its account-to-account (A2A) option.
According to Mono, this payment option has recorded payment transactions worth over ₦5 billion.
With Mastercard Payment Gateway System’s large coverage,Mono can expect to facilitate larger volumes of payment transactions.
Mastercard’s services cover many merchants across several African countries including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria, where Mono already operates.
According to Hassan, Mono has connected more than 3 million financial accounts across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
For Mastercard,
it is an opportunity to leverage open banking operations to achieve account-to-account (A2A) payment capability for African businesses.
Folasade Femi-Lawal, Mastercard’s country manager and area business head, West Africa, said;
“Embedding Mono’s open banking solution within Mastercard Gateway forms an integral part of our strategic blueprint to enrich and expand the payment methods available to our customers,”
According to reports, the payment network giant has been exploring non-card payment options in Africa for years.
Previous partnerships with payment providers, has birthed options like mobile money wallets, contactless payments, and QR payments.
In 2020, Mastercard declared that over 1.5 million merchant locations across Africa had embraced Mastercard QR payments.
Customers and Users
Highlighting the beneficiaries of the new technology, Momo listed merchants, fintechs, telcos, governments, and financial institutions.
The startup explained that customers “will seamlessly gain access to account-to-account capabilities instantly. This will elevate the payment experience for individuals and businesses,”
The Mono/ Mastercard innovation will enable payments directly into bank accounts without cards or USSD codes.
