Amazon and Mastercard team for digital payment in Africa, Middle East
Amazon is partnering with Mastercard to open emerging payment methods to African and Middle Eastern consumers.
The Amazon Payment Services payment solution subsidiary of Amazon has signed a multi-year commercial partnership agreement with Mastercard to digitize payment acceptance in Middle East and Africa in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, South Africa and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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As part of the collaboration, Amazon Payment Services will adopt the Mastercard Gateway unified touchpoint for payment processing as a payment solution available in 40 markets in the Middle East-Africa (MENA) region. The integration of the solution will enable retailers to offer seamless, and secure transactions to customers.
In addition to being used by Amazon Payment Services retailers, including Amazon online stores for shoppers across the UAE and Egypt, the companies hope such as entities such as telcos and governments leverage the new joint digital payment offering.
"We are delighted to strengthen our collaboration with Mastercard, to deliver on our common goal of shaping the future of online payments in the region," said Peter George, managing director, Amazon Payment Services, Middle East & North Africa. "Implementing Mastercard Gateway will empower us to expand our reach as a payment services provider and reduce the burden of integration, since the advanced technology solution is connected to all major acquirers around the world."
The solution will support emerging payment methods such as wearables, biometrics, digital wallets, QR codes, and contactless payments. The two organizations have also signed an agreement to develop secure card on file, click to pay, and token authentication services.
Other partnerships Amazon has entered to ease the process of making digital purchases in Africa include PayCode, a service it offers with Western Union that lets shoppers in countries including Kenya make payments in local cash currency via QR code.
"We are proud to partner with Amazon Payment Services to scale payment acceptance and accelerate digitization of payments with innovation solutions," said Amnah Ajmal, executive VP, market development, EEMEA, Mastercard.
Amazon Payment Services continues to enable online payments in MENA, supporting over 4,000 retailers and businesses across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.
