SPENN , a Denmark-based fintech, and Mastercard have partnered to enable SPENN Mobile Wallet users to make digital payments on the Mastercard network. Under the agreement, SPENN will launch a Mastercard virtual card, giving its Mobile Wallet App customers new ways to access and pay for products and services at the millions of ecommerce merchants that accept Mastercard.

With a Mastercard virtual (non-plastic) payment solution linked to SPENN Mobile Money wallets, consumers and small businesses can make payments to local and global online brands and can pay at over 15,000 Kazang devices in Zambia. This means ecommerce transactions can be done instantly through mobile wallets for a wide variety of payments including travel, entertainment subscription services, and bill payments while ensuring that the customer’s financial data is always secure and private. The SPENN-Mastercard virtual card will be rolled out in 2023, initially in Zambia and then across other African markets including Rwanda, Tanzania, and Nigeria.

SPENN’s relationship with Mastercard started in 2021 when SPENN Technology entered and won the Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program. A year later, SPENN was selected to participate in Start Path Crypto, Mastercard’s blockchain-focused startup engagement program providing access to partnership opportunities, insights, and tools to grow. Commitment to financial inclusion This partnership will help Mastercard advance its worldwide commitment to financial inclusion and pledge to bring a total of 1 billion people, 50 million micro and small businesses, and 25 million women entrepreneurs into the digital economy by 2025.

Mastercard is playing a leading role in addressing financial inclusion, with a previous goal to bring 500 million excluded individuals into the digital economy – a goal that was achieved in 2020. A 2021 report revealed there are 130 mobile-enabled insurance services in 28 countries, with over half offering coverage for life and funeral or health and hospitalization. In 2020, 43 million policies were issued, 29 million of which were related to life and health insurance.

Mastercard is one of the stakeholders in this space in Sub-Saharan Africa, working on delivering a reinsurance solution with a partner. The reinsurance would mean that customers can recover some of their hospitalization costs with cash insurance. Improving financial inclusion in Africa Sub-Saharan Africa has made progress in financial account ownership and usage over the past decade, doubtless spurred by mobile money.

By 2021, all 11 economies with more adults in possession of a mobile money account than a financial institution account were in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, more effort is needed to sustain the financial inclusion trajectory in Sub-Saharan Africa, with even more emphasis on access to financial services and products with increased value for users. The positive financial inclusion progress in Sub-Saharan Africa offers opportunities to spur economic growth in the region, given that financial inclusion is an enabler of sustainable development.

But maintaining the momentum in advancing financial inclusion calls for concerted efforts among financial sector actors to not only promote access and usage but also improve the quality of financial services while ensuring that financial consumer protection is central to those efforts. There is an opportunity for financial inclusion actors in Sub-Saharan Africa to develop collaborative customer identity verification systems to democratize financial inclusion and access to essential services. .