MasterCard and Banco Sol have partnered to introduce a dynamic suite of payment solutions to the citizens of Angola, which will help modernise and diversify one of Africa’s fastest growing economies. The partnership will help develop a more robust payments industry and offer the country core solutions which will help drive financial inclusion and increased ease of business.
These solutions include MasterCard’s debit commercial prepaid card solutions, as well as commercial management control solutions. The partnership will also result in further innovations being made in the local payment ecosystem.
Only 39.2% of Angolans have a bank account at a formal financial institution. This percentage is somewhat higher in urban areas, where 56.5% have an account, compared to 33.8% in rural areas.
Angola has the third largest banking sector in Africa, after Nigeria and South Africa and the fifth largest economy in Africa and has enjoyed sustained economic growth. However, a need to diversify the economy, following a slowdown, and in order to minimise a dependence on oil has been identified.
As one of the biggest financial institutions in Angola, Banco Sol is ideally placed to partner with MasterCard to meet these goals of economic diversification, increased financial inclusion and an increased ease of doing business.
Angola is enjoying increased banking sophistication according to Empresa Interbancária de Serviços. The operator of Angola’s only interbank network, EMIS, has tracked rapid growth in the use of ATMs. According to EMIS, between 2013 and 2014 the number of transactions in Angola increased almost 27% to over 170 million, attributed in part to growing numbers of foreign visitors.
Daniel Monehin, MasterCard Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa, says the partnership with Banco Sol marks an important milestone for the banking sector in Angola. “This partnership will help modernise the payment sector, and help diversify the economy which is in line with Government’s plan to drive economic growth in the country. It will also help to increase financial inclusion in Angola.”
“MasterCard shares Banco Sol’s vision of a more empowered, inclusive economy, and together we will continue bringing Angolans the enhanced security, increased financial inclusion, and broad economic growth that payments solutions offer,” says Monehin.
“Thanks to this partnership Banco Sol will now be able to offer a payment suite which matches the global standard, meaning increased ease of doing business, more efficient systems for cross border payments, and eventually online payments, which will expose Angolan business to a global marketplace,” says Coutinho Nobre Miguel, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Banco Sol.
Previously in November 2014, Empresa Interbancária de Serviços EMIS, operator of Angola’s only interbank network, and MasterCard announced a landmark partnership that saw all automated teller machines in the country accept MasterCard debit, credit and prepaid cards.
Tourists, business travelers and local citizens carrying MasterCard payment cards can withdraw Angolan currency, Kwanza, from more than 2,600 ATMs, owned by the 23 banks in the EMIS network. Prior to the partnership, MasterCard cardholders could only access funds at 65 ATMs in the country.
ATM usage has increased rapidly in Angola since 2010, when EMIS reported over 60 million transactions. In 2013, this number more than doubled to over 134 million transactions, attributed in part to the growing numbers of foreign visitors.
The World Tourism and Travel Council recently reported that travel and tourism directly contributed AOA184.1B to Angola’s GDP in 2013, 1.4% of total GDP. The Council forecasts this to increase by 8.1% in 2014. Further, travel and tourism directly supported 63,500 jobs last year, or 1.5% of total employment.
The collaboration comes at a time when MasterCard is working in partnership with governments and financial institutions to broaden usage and acceptance of electronic payments, promoting their benefits relative to cash transactions. Today, over 85% of retail payments globally are still carried out using cash or cheque, with the percentage being much higher in Africa. However, the combination of a rapidly expanding middle class and steadily improving financial literacy, supported by robust technology is increasing the appetite for electronic payments usage in Africa, providing opportunities for the advancement of a cashless society across the continent.
EMIS is the operator of the Angolan interbank network for the network of ATMs and Point-of-Sale terminals for automatic payments under the brand name of Multicaixa. EMIS is also the clearing house for those payments and for electronic funds transfer operations, electronic cheques and direct debit for all banks in Angola.
The main shareholder of EMIS is the Angolan central bank, the Banco Nacional de Angola with 43%. The actual banks participating in the interbank network hold participations from 1.97% up to 6.5% of the shares.
