Equity, Mastercard Sign 10-Year Partnership

Equity Bank and Mastercard have signed an ambitious Customer Business Agreement aimed at giving customers a broad range of benefits from a wide selection of Mastercard payment solutions.

The solutions range from World and World Elite cards, corporate cards, and virtual cards. In addition, customers will be able to perform a range of payments including cross border remittance, e-commerce payments, QR and Tap on phone solutions.

Both companies will also collaborate and continuously co-create innovative payment solutions in tandem with customer changing needs especially in e-commerce, cross border payments and segment-based value propositions. Other innovations will include community pass solutions that will enable farmers and traders to access services via different identification methods such as QR, biometric, and facial recognition.

The partnership will see Equity Bank offer modern payment capabilities across all its subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan and DRC.

Speaking during the signing of the agreement, Dr James Mwangi (CBS), Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group Holdings Plc said that he is pleased to scale the company’s strategic partnership with Mastercard through the Customer Business Agreement.

“The opportunity to co-create futuristic payment solutions for our customers across all our bank subsidiaries is part of our strategy of delivering a “One Equity” experience across all our markets. Equity has become the preferred trade and investment partner in the region, and this makes our value proposition in payments and remittances a central part of our offerings. Our partnership with Mastercard is both mutually beneficial timely and aligned to our customer-centric commitment,” Dr Mwangi said.

“This alliance underlines our commitment to financial inclusion and digital transformation in Africa. Over the years, we have been working on developing, incubating, and scaling simple and locally relevant digital solutions, building stronger payment ecosystems, and extending acceptance infrastructure to small, mid-sized and micro businesses. By working together with Equity Group – the largest financial institution in East Africa – we are setting the pace for an evolved, affordable, and transparent payment ecosystem across Africa,” said Mark Elliott, Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard.

This collaboration is set to revolutionize the digital payments arena, empowering previously marginalized small, mid-sized, and micro businesses to seamlessly and securely handle both domestic and international payments from physical and e-commerce transactions.