Kenya:Equity Group Signs a Customer Business Agreement with Mastercard

By Samuel Ouma

Equity Group on Monday signed a 10-year agreement with Mastercard to enhance the consumer payments experience.

This partnership aims to provide customers with multiple benefits through a wide selection of Mastercard payment solutions, from World and World Elite cards to corporate and virtual cards.

Additionally, customers can make a range of payments, including cross-border remittances, e-commerce payments, QR solutions and Tap on the phone.

Also, Equity and Mastercard will continuously collaborate and co-create innovative payment solutions jointly with evolving customer needs, including e-commerce, cross-border payments and segment-based value propositions.

Other innovations will include community card solutions that allow farmers and traders to access services through various identification methods such as QR, biometrics and facial recognition.

"We are pleased to scale up our 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,” said Dr. James Mwangi (CBS), Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group Holdings Plc.

The partners' common goal of empowering consumers to satisfy their payment demands across a broad spectrum of lifestyle and business requirements has influenced the vast variety of services and advantages customers will enjoy.

The collaboration includes the bank's subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“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,” added CEO Mwangi.

Mark Elliott, Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard, 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."

This cooperation has the potential to transform the digital payments industry by enabling previously neglected small, mid-sized, and micro enterprises to manage domestic and international payments from physical and e-commerce transactions in a simple and safe manner.