Mastercard has announced a significant strategic partnership with enza, a rapidly expanding payment solutions company headquartered in Abu Dhabi with regional offices in Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria. This collaboration is designed to broaden access to embedded payment capabilities for fintech companies across Africa, linking them to Mastercard's extensive global network. The primary objective is to empower African fintech innovators to deploy secure, scalable, and efficient financial services for both consumers and businesses, thereby accelerating financial inclusion and the continent’s digital transformation.

The initiative aims to dramatically reduce the complexity and time-to-market for fintechs by enabling them to build solutions directly on the enza platform with pre-integrated Mastercard services. This comprehensive offering includes the ability to issue physical and virtual Mastercard cards, manage both consumer and merchant accounts, and facilitate Mastercard payment acceptance across various channels, including in-store, online, and in-app. Fintechs will also have the flexibility to configure pre-paid or post-paid account structures, adapting to their specific business models and market demands.

According to a recent report by the European Investment Bank, the number of fintech firms operating in Africa has nearly tripled since 2020. This growth is largely driven by increasing demand for digital financial services, especially in regions where traditional banking systems are either inaccessible, costly, or inefficient. Many of these emerging fintechs are focused on integrating payment functionalities into broader technology solutions to enhance financial access and bypass outdated infrastructure. Mete Guney, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) at Mastercard, emphasized the company’s focus on powering the fintech ecosystem by enabling access to its trusted global network, stating that this partnership will allow innovators to deploy embedded payment capabilities more efficiently.

Under the terms of the agreement, enza will be responsible for managing the integration with Mastercard’s network. A key aspect of enza's role is to ensure that all hosted services deliver high levels of security, reliability, and system availability. Andrew Key, Executive Director at enza, highlighted the company’s mission to make digital payments more accessible and affordable across Africa, contributing to a more financially inclusive continent capable of competing globally. He added that the collaboration leverages their existing relationship with Mastercard to more effectively serve the fintech community, providing innovators with a platform that allows them to reach the market faster and with enhanced security.

This partnership is anticipated to play a crucial role in strengthening Africa’s digital economy. By lowering the barriers to entry for fintech firms, it can facilitate broader access to digital financial tools, allowing startups to bring solutions to market faster and established fintechs to expand into new markets with less friction. The availability of Mastercard-branded services is also expected to build consumer trust in new platforms and provide instant interoperability, enabling users to transact more easily across various platforms and national borders. The collaboration is seen as a blueprint for empowering a new wave of fintech providers to expand access to modern payment solutions across the entire continent.