Providus Bank has announced a new partnership with Mastercard, Interswitch and Thales Group to drive growth of digital payments in the country.
The new partnership will see the introduction of a new Tap-to-Pay service that allows cardholders to make fast, secure, and convenient in-store payments by tapping their NFC enabled smart device at any contactless-enabled payment terminal.
Leveraging Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service (MDES), and Interswitch’s tokenization capability, ProvidusBank customers can enjoy a new level of convenience, no longer needing a card or a physical wallet during shopping trips.
For each transaction, Mastercard’s tokenization and digitization technology replaces primary account numbers (PANs) with tokens to provide a faster, more secure, and seamless checkout experience while rendering card numbers useless to fraudsters.
Speaking on the new partnership, Managing Director/CEO of Providus Bank, Walter Akpani said technology has evolved greatly in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade with mobile phone technology playing a significant role in that space.
“As a Bank, our collaboration with Mastercard and Interswitch to provide additional value through the mobile device is a strategy to leverage existing infrastructure, while delivering simplified payment through their advanced digital and tokenization services.”
In his own comment, Country Manager & Area Business Head, West Africa at Mastercard, Ebehijie Momoh explained that the convergence of physical and digital commerce is not in the future, but now.
“As a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation, we are excited to work with ProvidusBank to deliver a new payment experience that is both seamless and secure, in turn speeding the adoption of digital payments in Nigeria.”
