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Mastercard Almost Has Africa Covered

Mastercard Almost Has Africa Covered

Africa is the the fastest-growing area for payments technology company MasterCard, which is expanding its footprint to cover seven new African markets for a total of 48 countries, ITWebAfrica reports.

So how many countries are there in Africa? It depends. The top seven Google search results show five different answers: 55, 47, 57, 61 and 54.

In a statement, MasterCard said it is growing in Central and West Africa, adding Chad, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Gambia to its operating countries. That means Mastercard almost has Africa covered.

Africa has huge strategic importance for MasterCard and the company plans to continue investing in infrastructure, people and know-how on the continent, said Michael Miebach, Middle East and Africa president for MasterCard, in a prepared statement, ITWebAfrica reports.

“Africa’s ongoing economic development, steady population growth and encouraging political outlook means that there is an increasing need for innovative and secure payment solutions that address market needs,” Miebach said. “This has been the fastest-growing area for MasterCard for the past few years, and we expect it to continue to register high growth.”

MasterCard says it has more than 58,000 ATM locations and 438,000 point-of-sale terminals in Africa.

The company said it introduced mobile point-of-sale technology with Equity Bank in Kenya since January 2013.

“Our investment in Africa, through sharing industry knowledge and best practice, and by
providing training for our customer banks, merchants and retailers, means we are creating
more opportunities for all stakeholders in the African payments sector and better integrating the continent’s economies with those elsewhere in the world,” Miebach said.