Mastercard has made a grand step towards its expansion in Africa with the opening of its new Accra Ghana office, a strategic choice to raise its footprint in the expanding, dynamic financial environment of West Africa.
So far, the establishment of a physical office in Ghana validated the endeavours of the Global Payments Systems work to strengthen and extend the current collaboration with Ghanaian stakeholders and to serve as a vehicle for the distribution of new financial products in Ghana.
Division President for Africa, Mark Elliott of Mastercard, also underscored the strategic importance of the opening for Mastercard’s capacity to serve the needs of Ghanaian consumers as well and indicated that a new office will be established to support this.
He highlighted promising future schemes in West Africa, the layout of the Accra office in relation to the promotion of partnerships with local partners and the drive for timely implementation of smart payment technologies that will lead to a much more financially inclusive future.
The scale overlaps with Ghana’s economic growth, that is, Ghana has reached a GDP per capita of $2,238 (2023) and the country’s growth has been achieved by more advanced primary industries (such as agriculture, mining, and ICT). Mastercard views such an economic reality as advantageous to the digitization of the economy, and the growth of the small businesses in a digital economy.
Country Managing Director of West Africa, Mastercard, Folasade Femi-Lawal, described the existing interactions between the company, banks, fintechs and other stakeholder institutions, among others, who are however coming to redefine the West Africa regional financial landscape. These multidisciplinary writings have also established a solid foundation for subsequent development and extensions.
It is not the first step of any card to take a large number of steps and to properly settle in Ghana by smart teaming remotely before physically having a presence in Ghana. When working together with disruptive organisations, such as Kalabash, KaiOS, and Boost, digital services have successfully broken into otherwise underserved parts of the population.
Inter-border payments have become increasingly streamlined and owing to interborder payments being seen as the key to reaching the ultimate efficiency along the entire process, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank created platforms with the company in efforts to increase the efficiency of the completion of interborder payments and thus regionalize finance.
Additionally, the effort made by the Mastercard Fintech Forum (MFF) and Fraud and Cyber Resilience Forum (FCCF) has been fundamental to the building of the ecosystem and safeguarding the financial system.
The Accra office will support Mastercard’s existing coverage in other key African cities (Lagos, Nairobi Johannesburg) and Casablanca. This growth is in line with Mastercard’s long-term vision of a connected digital economy in Africa, a long-term vision which will ultimately be a sustainable digital economy, and how Mastercard supports its advocacy for financial inclusion across Africa, providing the most effective payment coverage to Africa’s growing digital economy.
By investing in Ghana, not only is Master Card building trust in the economic future of this country but it is also poised to become the leader in West Africa’s digital payments market.
