Visa has partnered with MFS Africa, a pan-African mobile money hub, to enable people with mobile wallets in Africa to pay for international online services.
Under the Visa partnership, mobile money users on the MFS Africa platform will be able to generate a 16-digit virtual card to use for remittances and online transactions.
MFS Africa will also integrate Visa’s real-time push payments solution Visa Direct, to provide mobile money users on the MFS Africa platform a fast, convenient and secure way to send and receive money and remittances directly from/into their mobile money wallets via eligible card credentials.
Dare Okoudjou, founder and chief executive of MFS Africa said, “We have found in Visa an invaluable partner to support us in the next stage of our expansion. The reach of the Visa network is unparalleled, and we look forward to working with Visa to realise our vision of a world in which no one is limited in what they can achieve when it comes to payments.”
Okoudjou said the Visa partnership should help lower the cost of remittances into Africa, which are currently the most expensive in the world with providers taking a nearly 10 percent cut in transaction fees.
“Our mission is to bring down the cost of remittances into and within Africa,” he said.
Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product officer, said: “Africa is adopting a mobile-led, digital payments ecosystem and with Visa looking to accelerate the distribution of payment credentials and expand the acceptance space for digital payments, this partnership is an important one.”
