Nigeria |MasterCard Sees Growth in Nigerian Traders Without Bank Accounts

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — MasterCard Inc. plans to introduce new payment systems in Nigeria that will target merchants who don’t have bank accounts and rely mostly on cash transactions.

The company is working with the umbrella organizations of Nigerian traders and collaborating with banks and technology companies to start offering the services this year, Omokehinde Ojomuyide, MasterCard’s vice president and area business head for West Africa, said May 6 in an interview in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

The second-largest U.S. payments network is predicting faster sales growth in Nigeria even as the country struggles to cope with a drop in oil prices that has contributed to the slowest economic expansion since 1999.

“Electronic payment is still about 3 percent of total consumer spending, so the people doing cashless transactions continue to grow even though total consumer spending may be declining,” Ojomuyide said. “The Nigerian economy is not only about oil. The commerce that is within Nigeria and can be converted to electronic payment is amazing.”

It may replicate some cashless-transaction models in Ghana and other countries in West Africa, where MasterCard plans to open an additional office this year, Ojomuyide said, without giving details.

Source: Bloomberg News