Zambia: Zamtel signs partnership agreement with MasterCard to strengthen its Mobile Money business
June 21st 2021
Between March 2019 and March 2021, the value of transactions carried out by Mobile Money in Zambia grew by more than 335% according to the Central Bank. Zamtel, which is also seeking to increase its revenues in this growing segment in the country, is banking on opening up to the international market.
Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Zamtel), the incumbent telecommunications operator, announced on Friday (June 18th) the signing of a partnership agreement with the American payment company MasterCard. Through this collaboration, Zamtel Mobile Money subscribers – even those without a bank account – will be able to make secure and transparent digital payments over the MasterCard network, including international e-commerce transactions.
“ We are very excited about this partnership with MasterCard, which is another step in realizing our ambition to become a partner of choice in the digital lifestyle. With access to MasterCard’s unparalleled merchant network, this partnership instantly expands the ecosystem of locations where our mobile wallet can be used, providing greater convenience, more choice and an improved user experience for our customers, ”said Sydney Mupeta, Chairman and CEO of Zamtel.
With the Covid-19 crisis, the purchasing habits of populations have changed. E-commerce has seen a resurgence of dynamism and mobile payment solutions have been used a lot. From March 2019 to March 2021, the Central Bank recorded an 86.3% increase in transaction volume and financial value of 335.99%. In 2019, Mobile Money in Zambia recorded 2,381,042 transactions for 2,923,236,054 Kwacha (USD 129.4 million). In 2021, the volume of transactions increased to 60,325,540 for 12,745,079,643 Kwacha (564.3 million USD).
By signing with MasterCard, Zamtel wants to extend the reach of its Mobile Money service by giving consumers the possibility to pay for goods and services outside national borders. Any international transactions that will be added to national transactions will thus increase the revenues of the telecoms operator.
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