Mastercard and Billetera partner to drive digital financial inclusion in Democratic Republic of Congo

By Pavithra R

Mastercard has announced partnering with Billetera, a leading digital payments technology company headquartered in Kenya, to provide unbanked and financially excluded residents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), access to formal financial and digital services through a diverse range of digital payment solutions.

The alliance aims to support the vision of the DRC Government, which under the leadership of President Felix Tshisekedi has an ambitious digitization program aligned with the country’s National Digital Plan (NDP).

“As we continue to invest in innovative technologies & platforms, infrastructure and the right fintech partnerships that enable us to provide a single platform capability across multiple-use cases to our partners, we are confident this will boost our efforts in achieving our global commitment to bring 1 billion people into the digital economy by 2025. A partnership like this one will further the Democratic Republic of Congo’s prospects of growing financial inclusion in the country,” said Arn Vogels, Area Business Head, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard.

The partnership between the companies is aimed at creating payments solutions that will drive acceptance of government services such as electricity bills and water, taxes such as wet market permits, housing rents and building permits, e-visas, customs payments in the ports. The acceptance solutions were designed for delivery through online portals and PostBank channels.

The collaboration will support the development of an e-citizen system, through the launch of a digital wallet that will serve as the ID and main payments platform for payments to and from the government. The deal is also meant to design a digital ecosystem that will provide the framework for digital payments across all government departments.

“Management of citizen relationship in the service value chain remains a critical factor in enhancement of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ease of doing business index. The launch of our partnership is in spirit with the current government’s political goodwill, keen on increasing financial inclusion to a double digit by 2023. As a FinTech, we shall synergize our software development capabilities with Mastercard’s latest technologies towards the digitization of the DRC government payments; a major case for the cash economy disruption,” said Jevis Omondi Okoth, CEO Billetera RDC.

Billetera has a long history of working with both the public and private sector to offer the latest in digital payments solutions within the East and Central Africa region. A major success story is their partnership with SCPT (Société Congolaises des Postes et Télécommunications).