Mastercard has partnered with African fintech and Start Path company Paycode to provide both company’s offerings on one biometric smart card that will help increase access to critical services and advance economic inclusion for Africans living in remote communities.
An estimated 57 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa remains financially excluded while close to 30 percent remain without a form of identification and 60 percent of the continent has no internet connectivity, leaving these individuals unable to access government assistance and basic financial services. To address these challenges,
Mastercard’s Community Pass™ platform will be included in Paycode’s Electronic Data And Payments Technology platform (EDAPT) that currently provides a secure, biometric identity as well as a digital bank account. Individuals can access digital financial services offline in real-time even if they lack a formal identity document such as a birth certificate or passport.
Together, Paycode and Mastercard deliver a path to prosperity, enabling users to manage day-to-day needs including paying school fees for children, getting vaccinations for their families, selling goods, and growing their businesses. To enable this, Community Pass allows a person’s face or palm to be recognized at both online and offline locations while ensuring best-in-class security of their individual data. Community Pass also leverages consistent technology standards so that an individual can seamlessly access financial, health, agricultural, or aid services across providers, including government disbursements.
The partnership’s goal is to onboard 30 million individuals living in remote, unconnected areas of Africa over the next three years, enabling them to access the products and services they need with a Community Pass biometric smart card that runs on Paycode’s EDAPT platform.
“Adding Inclusive ID functionality to Paycode biometric smart cards helps reach those currently excluded from critical government programs and ensures we are addressing basic financial needs of a dispersed population,” said Ricardo Pareja, SVP, Sales & Market Development, H&D for Mastercard. “As we seek to drive beyond inclusion to fostering prosperity in communities across the globe, a critical focus for Mastercard is to help enable the interoperability and scale of solutions like those provided by Paycode.”
Ralph Pecker, CEO at Paycode said: “As Paycode we are proud to partner with global leaders like Mastercard to effect positive change for people on the ground and drive innovation in financial services delivery in deep rural areas. As leaders in last-mile delivery and proof of life financial services technology, we play the important role of providing solutions that bring tremendous growth and financial access offline in real-time to the financial and technology sectors in Africa.”
“We believe that shared digital tools and scalable channels can drastically improve the reach and access to services, by reducing the cost to serve those communities as well as improving the effectiveness of service delivery. At Mastercard, we are committed to building an inclusive, sustainable economy where everyone has the opportunity to reach their potential,” says Selim Ergoz, Vice President, Business Development – Governments at Mastercard.
“Our trusted network powers digital transactions every day, making them safe, simple and smart and we apply this innovation to the most connected and the most remote communities around the world. By partnering with Paycode we will bring Mastercard’s suite of inclusion products to people in Africa that were previously unreachable, and that’s a game-changer.”
