• This cooperation allows Carticard to disburse loans via prepaid cards
• “Carticard” provides its services to small traders, craftsmen, small farmers and other groups of society with the aim of integrating more people into the digital economy
• New partnership underscores Mastercard's commitment to its plans to support local FinTech companies and advance financial inclusion

Cairo, Egypt, December 22 , 2020 - MasterCard announced the signing of a new cooperation agreement with Carticard, the strategic partner of egabi FSI, which provides its customers with enhanced digital payment solutions with the aim of integrating more people into the digital economy.

The new partnership enables Carticard to distribute loans directly through prepaid MasterCard cards. This service will allow for easier digital transactions, which helps consumers reduce the use of paper currencies and increase reliance on cards that provide higher levels of security, convenience and speed of completion of transactions. The new partnership will also contribute to increasing the number of Carticard card holders to 400,000 individuals, and will enable egabi FSI to expand its microcredit platform to reach 8 million consumers in 2022.

Carticard works in cooperation with banks to manage and issue payment cards for many entities, such as microfinance institutions, consumer finance companies, merchants and self-employees. It should be noted that all Carticard offers are certified and available on the platforms of “egabi FSI”, a leading company in the financial technology sector that provides its clients with several services such as ease of information transmission, big data analysis and cloud computing, in addition to providing a loan platform that serves 2 million consumers of financial institutions. Micro-enterprises in the Middle East and Africa.

The measures taken by the Egyptian government to combat the Covid-19 epidemic led to an 80% increase in e-commerce transactions in the local market last year, which contributed to strengthening financial inclusion plans and pushing the country a step forward towards building an integrated digital economy.

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Carticard to enable more people to enjoy the benefits of the digital economy, ” said Mohamed Assem, Director of MasterCard in Egypt. “Earlier this year, MasterCard committed to connecting one billion people around the world to the digital economy by 2025. So it is only natural that we redouble our efforts to support local fintech companies that are ultimately striving for better financial inclusion.”

Ahmed Sameh, Managing Director of Carticard, said : “We are pleased to collaborate with MasterCard to digitize payments for micro and microfinance. Our cooperation will contribute to enhancing the journey of financial inclusion by facilitating digital cash payments and collection with the support of the trusted MasterCard e-payment gateway. We will launch the program in Egypt first, with plans to expand soon in other countries and regions.”