Spurred on by the company’s steady growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
and in line with its focus on investing in the continent, Mastercard has appointed
Raghav Prasad as Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa. Prasad will
strengthen the company’s ongoing commitment to delivering value to customers
and consumers in Africa by leveraging technology to build stronger and more
inclusive payment ecosystems, reports ITRealms.
Prasad brings his extensive 30-year global financial services and
payments industry experience to further Mastercard’s goal of financially
including 100 million people by 2020 – an objective that can only be achieved by working with partners
across the public and private sectors and by introducing market-relevant digital payment solutions such as Masterpass QR, Mastercard
Payment Gateway Services along with its core Debit, Credit, Prepaid and
Commercial solutions.
With a proven track record as a leader, Prasad has a deep
understanding of the payments sector, and brings unique insights into the
region honed while running his own consulting practice focusing on the Middle
East and Africa as well as working for global players like Citibank and RBS.
“The influence and true potential of technology is seen on the
continent like almost nowhere else in the world. Africa has an amazing
advantage of not having invested in legacy infrastructure and can embrace the
latest technologies, especially mobile, to transform the payments landscape.
Technology innovation is influencing the way consumers engage with the world
around them, shaping economies, creating smarter, more connected and
financially inclusive cities,” said Prasad.
Mobile continues to act as a critical conduit of growth in
Sub-Saharan Africa, currently accounting for nearly a tenth of the global
mobile subscriber base and is predicted to grow faster than any other region
globally over the next five years. Additionally, the World Bank estimates that
over 64 million adults in the region already have a mobile money account –
making it the most easily accessible technology for those currently excluded
from the formal financial services sector.
It also serves as an increasingly important tool for the continent’s
growing youth population. Africa will become the youngest and most populous
continent in the next few decades, according to the Africa
Development Bank Outlook 2018 Report. Its labour force will expand to
nearly two billion in 2063, a trend that is supported by the fact that over 12
million young people join the workforce every year.
Prasad predicts that the demographic dividend of a large young and
tech-savvy population will lead to many of these youth starting up businesses
of their own, and becoming job creators. “Our work in supporting the MSME
sector is critical to our role in Africa, and solutions such as Masterpass QR
are turning the tide on cash dependency as well as helping millions of
merchants to go digital for the first time. This is more attractive for
businesses and consumers alike – and we see youth being a key driver of the
adoption of new technologies now, and in the future"
Nenye Dom/GEE
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