Visa Signs Strategic Partnership Deal with Atlas Mara
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Partnership aims to drive electronic payment adoption and financial inclusion in Sub Saharan Africa
Lusaka, Zambia – 26 Jan 2017: Visa (NYSE:V), a global payments technology company, today signed a commercial partnership with Atlas Mara Limited (LON: ATMA), the sub-Saharan Africa financial services group, as part of a wider strategic partnership to introduce a dynamic suite of payment solutions and expand access to electronic payments within the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Through this partnership, Atlas Mara’s banks will be able to leverage already existing Visa payment platforms, such as mVisa and Visa Direct, to provide their customers new ways of transacting that are convenient, and secure.
“Atlas Mara is a driving force for the provision of better, more innovative and reliable financial services to more Africans everywhere,” said Andrew Torre, Group Country Manager, Visa Sub-Saharan Africa. “Our partnership enables Atlas Mara to deploy Visa’s global assets and payment solutions and has the potential to be transformational for commerce, mobile payments and financial inclusion across Africa.”
In 2016, Visa launched mVisa, a new mobile payment service that brings, for the first time in Africa, an interoperable, versatile and secure mobile payment solution, powered by Visa and its partner financial institutions. With mVisa, consumers can directly access their funds in their bank accounts to pay merchants (person-to-merchant or P2M) or individuals (person-to-person or P2P). Because the transaction runs through the Visa network, VisaNet, the consumers and merchants do not need to be customers of the same bank or mobile operator.
Visa Direct provides cardholders the ability to transfer funds seamlessly, quickly and securely over any channel, be it personal computers, mobile phones, local bank branches, or ATMs, and can be funded from many sources (including bank accounts or payment cards).
“Delivering innovative services to accelerate financial inclusion and more efficiently service our customers is one of our core strategies. Through our partnership with Visa, Atlas Mara will be able to offer a suite of digital and mobile payment solutions for the everyday payments needs of our expanding customer base across Africa,” says Chidi Okpala, Chief Digital Officer, Atlas Mara.
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About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews.
About Atlas Mara
Atlas Mara Limited (LON: ATMA) is a financial services institution listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its vision is to create sub-Saharan Africa’s premier financial services institution through organic and inorganic growth by combining the best of global institutional knowledge with extensive local insights. With a presence in seven sub-Saharan countries, Atlas Mara aims to be a positive disruptive force in the markets in which we operate by leveraging technology to provide innovative and differentiated product offerings, excellent customer service and accelerate financial inclusion in the countries in which the Company operates. For more information, visit www.atlasmara.com
