The US Agency for International Development Finance (DFC) and Mastercard, a US payment system business, will work on a funding project for African digitization and financial inclusion. The agreement was signed in Washington on the fringes of the United States-Africa Leaders Summit, which took place from Tuesday, December 13 to Thursday, December 15.
DFC will assist up to $50 million in possible investments in groups that are part of the Community Pass network, which supports digital connectivity, smartphone penetration, and ID systems in rural parts of India, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.
“DFC and Mastercard’s work to increase financial inclusion and improve access to digital tools will help us move forward toward our common goal of lowering Numeric fraction,” says DFC CEO Scott Nathan.
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DFC was established in 2020 to assist firms in expanding into emerging markets, stimulate growth, and enhance people’s lives in developing countries, among other things. In industries like as energy, health, infrastructure, and technology, the organisation makes equity investments, loans, guarantees, insurance, technical help, and research.
By growing the network of financial institutions and service providers on Community Pass, Mastercard hopes to achieve 15 million African users and 30 million total users by 2027.
This collaboration between DFC and Mastercard will enhance access to key services in marginalised communities, with the overarching objective of creating a more inclusive and sustainable digital economy for all. “Our collaboration with DFC illustrates how public sector money combined with private sector technology and knowledge can produce a total bigger than the sum of its parts,” said Tara Nathan, Executive Vice President of Mastercard’s relief and development division.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard