The move centers on financial inclusion, aiming to provide a new accessible digital payment solution to the 1.7 million people in the United Arab Emirates who are currently unbanked.

According to the release, the partnership was inked at the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, and is among the first to involve an African fintech company.

Services the bank will offer include accepting deposits from individuals and small businesses, carrying out payment and remittance services within Nigeria, issuing debit and prepaid cards and more. 

Tanmeyah, which was founded in 2009, provides working capital for smaller enterprises and reports having 391,000 clients.

OPay and Mastercard are collaborating to drive financial inclusion across the Middle East and Africa by partnering to open up digital commerce in the region

A recent report found 86 percent of consumers in Colombia — approximately 1.6 million individuals — who had never had a bank account signed up for one between April and November 2020.

COVID-19 has dramatically increased reliance on real-time and digital payments, leading to a 41 percent surge in real-time payment transactions from 2019 to 2020.

The tie-up will enable Indian startups and SMBs to fold technology into their operations and accelerate digitalization while also maintaining business continuity and preparing for alternatives to cash payments.

The pandemic and the rise of mobile infrastructure have set the stage to bring people living in developing and emerging economies into the digital realm.

Mastercard plans to take Juvo’s platform to financial institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean. The companies said the service could potentially help open up banking services to millions of customers.