B2B commerce platform Boost enters Mastercard partnership in Africa

Mastercard has partnered with B2B commerce platform Boost with a view to delivering digital payment wallets and embedded supply chain finance solutions to small businesses in Africa.

The partnership intends to provide support to distributors, wholesalers, and retailers in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, particularly in high-growth markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.

Those same small businesses will be able to access essential working capital and Mastercard’s acceptance solutions via Boost’s platform-as-a-service.

Mastercard will enable Boost to offer digital payment and credit solutions to their micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) customers.

The collaboration between the two companies aims to provide financial institutions with the capability to issue digital payment solutions and expand into the “micro-retail” space, in turn encouraging merchants to digitise payments and access working capital.

“We are thrilled to enter into this scaling partnership with Mastercard in pursuit of Boost’s mission to enable small businesses to thrive in the digital economy, to create sustainable jobs and income,” said Mike Quinn, co-founder and chief executive officer of Boost.

Boost’s model has already been proven to scale broadly across, and within, emerging markets through strong partnerships to digitize end-to-end supply chains between manufacturers and point-of-sale retailers, according to Quinn.

“Mastercard will help us take our model to the next level to create transformative value for our customers and partners while fuelling our global ambitions,” he added.

The partnership will help Mastercard to meet its goal of bringing a total of one billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025.

Folasade Femi-Lawal, country manager and area business head, West Africa at Mastercard, said: “By digitizing payments and creating a track record for their transactions, we will enable more MSMEs to access credit facilities and scale their businesses.

“Through the delivery of integrated digital payment solutions and supply chain finance, we believe we are empowering MSMEs with essential tools to not only survive, but thrive.”

Earlier this month, Mastercard revealed it is adopting new generative AI technology to enhance fraud detection and better protect consumers.