Commercial Payments International

With a vast untapped commercial payments market in the Middle East and Africa, commercial card companies are stepping up their efforts to grab the market.

Mastercard has teamed up with Network International, which works in digital commerce, to introduce its commercial card solutions in the Middle East and Africa region.

Under this partnership, the two companies will help to drive the digital adoption of commercial payment solutions in that region. Both the companies will launch a “Commercial Payment Platform” in Q4 2020.

Under this platform, the two will offer ‘business and corporate cards, travel cards, fleet cards and procurement cards’ and other corporate payment solutions. This according to the press release will help businesses across sectors to move towards digitisation of payment services.

Corporate clients will also be able to benefit from Mastercard’s In Control for Commercial Payments, which is a platform that helps corporates through the creation of an end-to-end virtual payment ecosystem.

The press release also noted that MEA annual commercial spend is $4 trillion which done via payment cards is only 1%.

“Our partnership with Mastercard enables us to create a consolidated framework to address some of the challenges and unlock opportunities for issuers, banks and fintechs in the region. We have been accelerating and enhancing our services and innovative solutions to help large and small business, government and merchants to improve their financial well-being,” said Simon Haslam, Group Chief Executive Officer, Network International.

Back in 2019, Mastercard invested in Network International as a cornerstone investor which was followed by additional commitment of $35 million over five years for the development of payment solutions.