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 That is still a small share of MasterCard's around 1.4 billion cards
in use globally. But there is plenty of room for growth in a region
where about 90 percent of transactions are still done in cash,
compared with an average of 85 percent globally.
"This is the fastest growing region," Michael Miebach, president,
Middle East and Africa for MasterCard worldwide, told Reuters. "We
continue to expect growth above the global average."
In March, the world's second biggest debit and credit card company
signed an agreement with the Egyptian government to issue digital
identification cards with built-in payment devices to 54 million
Egyptians, enabling them to pay for government fees, mobile phone
bills, shop purchases and other goods and services.
The scheme links consumers' identification cards with an existing
payment platform on mobile phones.
MasterCard has a pilot of a similar plan with the government of
Nigeria, which also has a low rate of "financial inclusion."
"We see in the Middle East as well as Africa a fairly high cash
dominance. If you go to Nigeria it is about 94 percent cash."
MasterCard and larger rival Visa Inc get more than 60 percent of
revenues from outside the United States. Less than a third of
MasterCard's come from Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. PayPal,
the payments arm of eBay, is also active in the region.
MasterCard's first-quarter results, published last month, showed
that purchase volumes in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa rose
by 15.2 percent, faster than the 11.8 percent figure for worldwide
volumes.
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The size of transactions in the region increased by 20.9 percent,
versus a 15 percent rise globally.
Within the Middle East and Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates were among the fastest growing markets, Miebach said. In
the UAE, robust spending by Chinese helped to offset weakness in
transactions volumes by Europeans and Russians as a result of
softness in the euro and rouble against the U.S. dollar, he said.
Across the Middle East and Africa, business had been faster in debit
cards than credit cards, with expansion also driven by popularity of
prepaid cards, he said.
Last month, MasterCard did a deal with Premier Bank in Somalia to
issue debit cards and install ATM machines in the country.
Miebach also said growth was strong in Sub-Saharan Africa, supported
by buoyant economies and people switching from cash to cards.
(Reporting By Tom Arnold. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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