Visa and Tingo Mobile, an MICT subsidiary, Launch Partnership to Promote Financial Inclusion and Expand Access to Digital Payment Channels Across Africa

MICT, Inc. (MICT) (“MICT”), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Tingo Mobile, and Visa (NYSE:V), the global leader in digital payments, today announced the launch of their pan-African strategic partnership, which aims to improve access to digital payments and financial services, and drive financial inclusion across Africa. The launch of the Tingo Visa card, together with the new TingoPay Super App and the TingoPay business portal, opens significant global opportunities to Tingo’s subscribers, allowing secure cashless payments at more than 61 million merchants in over 200 countries through Visa’s global network, as well as the ability for business subscribers to more readily and securely accept payments from customers and other third parties.

Customers can access their Tingo Visa card via the TingoPay Super App and use it to make online transactions in their domestic or foreign currencies, as well as to manage their cards, set up repeat payments and access transaction statements. The Tingo Visa card’s interface with the TingoPay super app and e-wallet allows customers to use their digital money easily and securely for both online and physical payments anywhere Visa is accepted. Additionally, TingoPay’s users can benefit from a broad selection of value-added services, including the ability to pay utilities and bills, top-up airtime and data, make funds and forex transfers, apply for loans, arrange pensions, purchase insurance products, make travel bookings and access the Nwassa agricultural produce marketplace.

The Tingo Visa partnership and TingoPay are also expected to deliver significant benefits to businesses, in particular farmers and other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across all sectors. The integration of Visa’s range of merchant services with TingoPay’s commerce portal and the Nwassa marketplace, enables businesses to accept payments easily and securely in any currency from both retail and business customers, and use the TingoPay e-wallet to immediately fund purchases of inputs and make other payments.

Through the partnership, TingoPay and Visa will target Tingo Mobile’s existing user base of 9.3 million, along with the more than 22 million new customers being enrolled to Tingo Mobile through its recent trade deals with the All Farmer Association of Nigeria, and the Kingdom of Ashanti, Ghana. In addition, TingoPay and Tingo Mobile have commenced a direct market campaign and customer acquisition, which kicked-off with their headline sponsorship of Wonderland Lagos in December, featuring some of Africa’s biggest music artists and attracting more than 1 million visitors.

Dozy Mmobuosi, Founder of Tingo Mobile and Chief Executive Officer of Tingo Group Holdings LLC, commented: “Our partnership with Visa and the launch of the Tingo Visa card and the TingoPay super app mark significant milestones as we strive to achieve our mission of delivering financial inclusion throughout Africa.

“SMEs in all business sectors stand to benefit from our new range of Tingo Visa merchant services and the TingoPay business portal, whereas our smallholder farmer customers will see significant additional advantages through the integration of TingoPay with our Nwassa agri-marketplace platform. We are immensely proud of the progress we are making towards empowering Africa’s farmers and SMEs, and we look forward to introducing our suite of products to other markets in the future.”

Darren Mercer, Chief Executive Officer of MICT, Inc. commented: “I am delighted with today’s launch of our partnership with Visa and the launch of TingoPay, which are hugely significantly events for the Company. Visa is the perfect partner for our pan-Africa roll-out, with their unrivalled reach throughout the continent.

“In addition to the enhancement of the offering to our core market of agriculture and farming, the launch of our partnership with Visa and our TingoPay super app also expands our B2B offering to SMEs across all business sectors and sees us introduce our first retail consumer offering. This significant expansion is expected to deliver a considerable increase in revenues and make a considerable contribution to our consolidated earnings in 2023 and beyond.”

Andrew Uaboi, Vice President and Head, Visa West Africa, commented: “We believe in innovation-led collaborations, and that fintechs remain core to solving the access to financial services gap in Africa. Partnerships are fundamental to our business model and this expansion of our strategic alliance with Tingo Mobile is another example of how we can help our clients through the delivery of improved customer experiences.

“Given the importance of the agricultural sector to Africa’s present and future, this partnership will help to digitize the entire value chain for farmers by enabling seamless digital payments which will facilitate economic growth and support the financial inclusion agenda across the continent. We are proud to partner with Tingo Mobile and support their ambitions to bring more Africans into the financial system with relevant digital solutions.”