As government, NGO and business leaders gather in London, San Paulo, and Toronto over the next several days to discuss strategies to drive a more empowered, inclusive planet, MasterCard executives will deliver the message that the 21st century offers the greatest opportunity for financial inclusion, and electronic payments offer the greatest hope for advancing it. View the full press release.
Leaders convene at FI 2020 Global Forum in effort to achieve quality financial inclusion, using the year 2020 as a focal point to galvanize action.
At FI2020, MasterCard president and CEO Ajay Banga was noted as saying, “Innovation in technology is helping governments strengthen the social contract with citizens. But technology alone cannot change the lives of those currently excluded from the financial mainstream – we need public private partnerships. This year alone, MasterCard launched more than ten programs around the world which are designed to bring financial access to over 350 million people.”
Two examples of successful public private partnerships include:
• Nigeria, where the government launched a national ID program that combines a biometric identification solution with a prepaid payment functionality powered by MasterCard and is the broadest financial inclusion initiative of its kind on the African continent.
• MasterCard’s partnership with SASSA and Net1 to digitize social grant benefits. Earlier this year, the program surpassed 10 million SASSA Debit MasterCard cards delivering benefits to 22 million people. Through this program, there are now 5 million financially included South Africans who were considered financially excluded just 18 months ago.
Read a recent blog about the role of public private partnerships driving financial inclusion.
Underscoring the importance of technology, a recent study conducted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and McKinsey, Fighting Poverty, Profitably, found countries where more than 70 percent of people can pay electronically, financial inclusion is over 85 percent.
6 Comments
Couldn’t agree more! Aside from PPP, we also need to add stuff like distribution, quality manpower, more commissions and more government support & less bureaucracy.
Thanks Avik. Appreciate your comment and yes, while there is momentum building there is definitely more work to be done by all sectors.
Amazing article!
Amazing!
Yeah, to be able to pay with your credit card it is very important especially when you want to have a lot of reliable purchases that you will do for example on the internet. But when I got myself a credit card I realize that I need to earn some money to use it and I spend decent days and nights to fulfill my financial problems and my friend advised me to get my eye on credit cards that I still using to this day when I wanted to buy something expensive like a card and something that is connected with real astate.
Yes, being able to pay with your credit card is really crucial, especially if you plan on making a lot of secure transactions, such as on the internet. But when I got a credit card, I realized that I needed to work to be able to use it, so I worked long days and nights to solve my financial problems, and a friend advised me to look into credit cards, which I still use today when I want to buy something expensive, such as a card or something related to real estate.