Scale partners with Mastercard to simplify card issuance across five African markets
A significant development in the African fintech space has seen Scale, a South African card-issuing startup, partner with Mastercard, a global payments company, to simplify card products for businesses in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This partnership aims to ease the complex process of issuing cards, which has hindered the growth of many fintech companies in Africa. In many African markets, companies offering card payment must coordinate with several parties, including issuing banks, payment networks, and Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsors, leading to slow product launches and increasing operational complexity. The partnership between Scale and Mastercard seeks to streamline onboarding, processing, and compliance, allowing businesses to focus on building products for customers while the platform handles the operational heavy lifting. In Kenya, where mobile money is already big and card usage is growing for e-commerce and higher-value transactions, the partnership mainly cuts complexity and time-to-market for existing fintech players. In markets like Senegal, Ivory Coast, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where cards are less common and cash or mobile wallets still dominate, the focus is on enabling new use cases such as companion wallet cards, small and medium enterprises, corporate spending cards, payout cards for governments and non-profit organisations.
Scale provides the issuing infrastructure, customer onboarding tools, and regulatory support, while Mastercard brings its global payments network, bank partnerships, and market expertise. This partnership builds on Scale's earlier momentum, which included raising $700,000 in October 2024 to grow its card-issuing platform across Africa. Additionally, it follows the surging demand for digital payments, with McKinsey projecting that Africa's financial-services revenues could reach around $230 billion in 2025.
This partnership is a significant step towards simplifying card issuance in Africa, but it remains to be seen whether Scale has the operational depth to match its ambition. The success of this partnership will depend on Scale's ability to navigate the complex regulatory frameworks in each market. Meanwhile, the growing demand for digital payments in Africa is a clear opportunity for fintech companies like Scale to expand their services and reach more consumers and businesses.
