by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MASTERCARD has announced the completion of significant new technological infrastructure it says will enable the company process transactions and drive the modernisation of South Africa’s payments industry.
The new technologies include new data centres, set to enable the processing of local transactions more efficiently and securely.
“This is a significant milestone for Mastercard in South Africa, and the continent’s wider modernisation journey,” said Gabriel Swanepoel, Southern Africa Country Manager, Mastercard.
He said a strong digital ecosystem is a top priority for our partners, policymakers and customers.
“That’s why we’ve been committed to ensuring a resilient and world-class payments infrastructure for decades. And that’s why we’ll continue our work to make SARB’s Vision 2025 digital transformation agenda a reality.”
Mastercard stated its priorities and investments are closely aligned with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) national digital transformation agenda, Vision 2025, focusing on enhancing the digital ecosystem and supporting the continent through locally relevant technology.
Mastercard’s reports have seen it grow its acceptance footprint nationwide by 200 percent since 2021 and bring various forms of digital payments options including Quick Response (QR) codes, automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale terminals.
Through local partnerships, Mastercard develops, incubates, and scales solutions including simplifying mobile payments with partner solutions such as VodaPay Masterpass and Nedbank’s Money Message.
It collaborates with payment facilitators like iKhokha and worked with Standard Bank as well as Simplify Commerce to launch SimplyBlu.
Mastercard has committed to a mission to include 1 billion individuals in the digital economy globally by 2025.
– CAJ News