What are the big corporates thinking? Raghu Malhotra, the Dubai-based President of Mastercard Middle East &amp; Africa, on developing clear frameworks for the current crisis, and why digital transformation is more important now than ever before.



Addressing the challenges of Covid-19



We absolutely find ourselves in a place where we are mandated to think differently about how we interact with the world around us. And it’s not just the challenge, but the scale of it that’s so astounding. Organizations need to play a vital role in enabling commerce critical to sustain people’s health and wellbeing.



Technology has always played an important role in how Mastercard addresses challenges, and that is even more true today. Through technology, we are better able to support all the partners with whom we interact in this ecosystem – governments, public sector, private companies, small businesses, fintechs, mobile network operators, retailers, merchants and consumers.



We developed a clear framework to address the impact of Covid-19 – containment, stabilization, normalization and long-term plans for eventual growth. We have been accelerating and enhancing our innovative services and solutions that can help businesses and governments in the region and around the world to assess, react and plan through the current crisis. We are now seeing signs that global economies are starting gradually to move into the stabilization phase.



Of course, first and foremost among the many challenges has been the cost to human health and wellbeing. We have committed to no job losses as a result of Covid-19. As an inclusive company, we know it’s paramount to consider diverse perspectives. We are encouraging learning, development and volunteering as our people combat challenges, but also discover new strengths.



Contactless payments and changing consumer behavior



Consumer behavior changes as people adapt to new environments. In order to observe social distancing, people are opting for digital and contactless modes of payment that are safe, secure and fast. While countries and sectors worldwide are at different stages of contactless deployment and usage for daily shopping habits, Mastercard saw the number of contactless transactions in South Africa grew 13X in March 2020 compared to March 2019 in grocery and pharmacy categories.



Contactless is definitely here to stay. In our consumer sentiment study from April this year, 78% of respondents in South Africa said they will continue to use contactless post-pandemic. The study revealed that since the beginning of Covid-19 in South Africa, 89% of South African respondents have been using contactless to pay for groceries, 60% for pharmaceutical items, 39% for other retail items, 15% for fast food, and 8% for transport.



When we look at the trends and data of growth in digital payments and online shopping, it’s significant. According to Mastercard data, for every $100 spent in Middle East and Africa (MEA), half was spent on e-commerce in May compared to a third of this figure in February this year.



Prioritizing inclusion



For everyone to benefit, we must include everyone – that’s why financial inclusion is so important. The digital economy is going to keep growing, and to ensure we advance real, genuine, inclusive growth, we need to make access easier and simpler. Bridging the digital divide is essential to enabling financial inclusion. Cash remains a drawback to financial inclusion and growth, which is why it’s so important for all partners to work together to build communities that are less reliant on cash and better positioned to take advantage of digital growth.



Our goal is to reach 1 billion people by 2025, including millions of small businesses and women entrepreneurs. Over the past five years, Mastercard has already reached 500 million people in 80 countries through 350 collaborative programs, including Kasha, an e-commerce platform in East Africa optimized for women’s health and personal care.



It offers confidential and convenient service, online and offline digital ordering and delivery to both urban and low-income rural areas. The digital marketplace for farmers via the Mastercard Farmers Network (MFN) and a digitized school payment ecosystem through the Kupaa initiative are other examples.



Mobile network operators play an enormous part in financial inclusion as we have a long-lasting partnership with these telcos, as well as fintechs and e-tailers, to reach people – especially those who don’t have bank accounts, as these are the people who will benefit from a digital wallet to transact with mobile money through QR codes and Virtual Card Numbers. Mobile money has transformed the landscape and almost half (45%) of all mobile money activity happens in sub-Saharan Africa. Technology is helping us achieve things previous generations could only dream of.



Helping SMEs reinvent themselves



Nine in 10 businesses in sub-Saharan Africa fall into the SME category, so they are incredibly important in driving growth for African economies and providing livelihoods for millions of people. Their success means sustainable prosperity for Africa’s entrepreneurs and going digital is a crucial part of this process. In Africa, online sales currently represent only 1% of total retail sales, so there are opportunities for Africa’s small businesses as they go digital.



One of the many initiatives we are supporting includes helping small businesses in Nigeria to set up digital money accounts and accept QR payments using Facebook Messenger and a Masterpass QR bot. In addition, we partnered with Letshego in Mozambique to pilot Community Commerce in order to digitize low-value transactions for shopkeepers of informal convenience shops. In South Africa, Mastercard has partnered with fintechs like uKheshe and iKhokha and other financial services providers, to offer low-cost digital payment solutions to SMMEs and the unbanked to fast track financial inclusion.



Over the next five years, Mastercard has pledged $250 million in financial, technology, product, and insights support to small businesses across the globe. These include measures such as helping small businesses with cash flow to sustain operations, providing access to credit, making insights available for decision-making and securing solutions to go digital, or grow in digital.



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;Nine in 10 businesses in sub-Saharan Africa fall into the SME category, so they are incredibly important in driving growth for African economies and providing livelihoods for millions of people. Their success means sustainable prosperity for Africa’s entrepreneurs and going digital is a crucial part of this process.&#8221;</blockquote>



Shaping the digital economy



At its core, the digital economy is an extremely powerful, transparent tool that enables social welfare grants for pensioners, working capital to SMEs, secure revenue streams, more convenience and lower costs for citizens. Our multi-rail approach is at the heart of how Mastercard is positively transforming the future of the digital economy. Through product introductions and acquisitions, we are reinforcing our value propositions in terms of government, account-to-account, and business-to-business payments. Additionally, we have rolled out technology for real-time transfers in bill payments and payouts, and prioritized security technology to help guard against increased fraud risk. We are participating in as many payment flows as we can to stay ahead of the changing landscape, delivering essential choices to banks, businesses and consumers.



Africa remains a top priority for Mastercard and we strive to help create a more connected continent that can continue its digital transformation and reach its full potential. We have been committed to progress in Africa for over 45 years, we are able to stay connected to Africa’s unique challenges and tremendous opportunities, as well as its inherent possibilities to succeed.



– Interviewed by Renuka Methil

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From The C-Suite: ‘The Digital Economy Is An Extremely Powerful, Transparent Tool’

Equity Group Foundation, with support from Equity Bank, Mastercard Foundation, and the family of Dr James Mwangi, commit Ksh1.1 billion to support Kenya’s immediate needs to protect frontline medical staff.



Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of the coronavirus pandemic has been the concerted effort between corporates and individuals to forge partnerships and collaborations driven by a common purpose.&nbsp;



The Equity Group Foundation (EGF) and Mastercard Foundation are the latest in the line of big names pledging their robust support to help beat the pandemic in Africa.



They have just announced a commitment of Ksh1.1 billion to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline medical staff dealing with Covid-19 patients in public hospitals in Kenya.



Equity Bank (with Ksh300million), and the Mastercard Foundation (with Ksh500million), a long-time partner of EGF, are providing support as part of their Mastercard Foundation Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Program.



The funding also includes a donation of Ksh300million from the family of Dr. James Mwangi, the Founding Chairman of EGF and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Group Holdings Plc. EGF will work in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund in this endeavor.



Mwangi, also FORBES AFRICA’s Person of the Year&nbsp;in 2012, says about the initiative: “It started when my attention was drawn to a group of students and doctors who were raising funds for PPEs for young post-graduate students, especially in Kenyatta National and Referral Hospital (KNH).”



A member of Kenya’s Covid-19 Emergency Fund Board, he adds: “We invited the CEO of the Kenya Medical Association and a group of doctors from KNH and University of Nairobi where we established the need for PPEs for medical staff handling Covid-19 patients in the country. A team of seven was formed to help structure this initiative.”



This initiative will be to ensure availability of PPEs across the country as also scale up a mental wellness support system for medical staff.



Reeta Roy, President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation says: “Healthcare workers are at the frontlines of caring for all of us, safeguarding community health. We must keep them safe. We are grateful this partnership meets the immediate needs precipitated by Covid-19, which the Foundation is prioritizing through our Mastercard Foundation Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Program.” “We will endeavor to continue with our engagement and mobilization of our partners to extend our partnership towards procurement of diagnostic kits. We believe there is a chance for every Kenyan to get the support they require to overcome the Covid-19 infection,” concludes Mwangi.

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Big Names Back Covid-19 Response In Kenya

At the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal on March 6, DJ Zinhle shone in the spotlight, talking about her journey from rock-bottom to record-breaking. 



As the
woman responsible for South Africa’s My Name Is hit song
makes her way onto the stage, there is rapturous applause from a 1,000 strong
audience, gathered at Durban’s international convention center for the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit.



Zinhle
Jiyane, popularly known as DJ Zinhle, walks up to the solo stage with her
four-year-old daughter, Kairo Forbes, who she calls one of her “biggest
achievements”.



South
Africa’s award-winning DJ and media personality presents an inspirational
speech during the summit’s #SPOTLIGHT session.



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“You’re lazy. You’re extremely lazy,” cites Zinhle as the words that shaped her into the woman she is today.



As a
child, Zinhle, who hails from KwaZulu-Natal, was heartbroken every time she was
called lazy.



“I knew I was a creative at heart. My lack of interest in limited career options and the mundane robotic task of drying the dishes didn’t really appeal to me. That’s the thing that got me the title ‘vila voco’ (meaning an extremely lazy person in English).”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Despite
that, Zinhle went on to pursue a BCom in marketing
at the University of Johannesburg. Graduating at the top of her class gave her the first dose of confidence.



“It was
possible. Although ‘vila voco’ might have been ringing in my head, at least I knew that it was possible to put in
the hard work and get
good results. That gave me all the confidence I need to
take over the world.
And that’s exactly what I did.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/woman/2020/03/11/lws2020kzn-the-forbes-woman-africa-2020-leading-women-summit-sets-the-bar-high-for-2021/">The FORBES WOMAN AFRICA 2020 Leading Women Summit Sets The Bar High For 2021</a>



Her new
found self-assurance propelled her to do more.



“In
2009, I launched Fuse Academy, the first and only DJ female academy in South Africa. Ten years later, the academy has
produced working DJs in
the industry that have contributed largely to the overall
entertainment
industry.”



After
eight years of resilience in the music industry, she finally scored her big break. 



“I had a song called My Name Is featuring Busiswa which became one of the biggest songs in 2012, not only in South Africa, but in most parts of Africa. This song was special to me because for the first time I knew what real success was. It was an exciting time for me as a woman”.



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Music
has always been the DJ’s first love, so while one hand was on the decks, she
tried the other hand at entrepreneurship.



“In 2013, I launched my jewelry business, Era By DJ Zinhle. Seven years later, my pride and joy is the first black female owned business to distribute through American Swiss.”



The hit
maker has been vocal about the importance of female empowerment. Her
involvement in a project seeking to do just this inspired her to put pen to
paper.



“In
2017, I joined a very important project called ‘It Takes A Village’ on SABC1 focusing on 11
young women who needed to deal with the demons
of their past. My role was to help them through this process, and help them find a better future for themselves. Spending time
with these incredible
ladies inspired me to write a book.”



Along with Nokubonga Mbanga, Zinhle published a book called Meeting Your Power that went on to become a best-seller.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/04/10/noami-campbell-has-big-plans-for-africa/">Naomi Campbell Has Big Plans For Africa</a>



Her new
hit Umlilo featuring Mvzzle &amp; Rethabile is her
latest achievement. The song, which means ‘fire’, was one of the biggest hits
to come out of South Africa in 2019.



“I’m very
proud of this song. Umlilo was out for
three months and had already reached platinum. It had over five million streams
in two months. Over and above that, it was crowned the crossover song by Metro
FM and many other radio stations. The last time Metro FM had a female-led song
as the crossover song of the year was in 1997 when Brenda Fassie took it with Vulindlela.”



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On March 6, Zinhle also won the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Entertainer Award.

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DJ Zinhle: The ‘Lazy Kid’ Who Achieved Platinum Success

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s New York-based Chief Marketing Officer, was in Kenya recently. Having been a marketing guru for 35 years, he discusses key strategies for brands to stay relevant in the digital age.



Future technologies shaping marketing In the last seven to eight years, the technology change has dramatically altered the field of marketing and is probably more than what happened in the preceding 25 to 30 years. The changes happening now are going to be even more dramatic. There’s a plethora of technologies coming in such as artificial intelligence that is going to touch every single part of the marketing ecosystem and that’s going to affect how we understand consumers, how we do data analytics, how we come up with insights. Blockchain has also been in the financial space but is going to the marketing space. For example, the advertising space has a ton of intermediaries; between the brand owner and the publisher. That leads to a lack of transparency, efficiency, and a lot of middle men are getting their cut of the entire advertising dollar. Some statistics indicate that 30 percent of the advertising dollar that marketers are spending on the media goes to the intermediaries. So there are possibilities here for Blockchain to take root and make the dollar work harder. The third one is augmented reality. It is going to add a layer or series of layers of information on top of their physical environment or even the digital environment which makes consumer interaction with their environment very different. That gives marketers a tremendous opportunity to engage consumers in unprecedented ways by providing information layers that are most relevant and appropriate for the consumers and compel them to take decisions that are right for them. Virtual reality is evolving and has yet to take real root but the moment it does, it will take off. 5G has got tremendous speed; it has got close to zero latency and that brings a whole different dimension to how we can engage consumers. 3D-printing is another area that’s coming pretty hard and fast and that’s something marketers have not exploited a lot. So tomorrow, the number of technologies coming at us are so many more and this is going to alter the landscape for marketers completely. If you know how to tackle it, you’ll be at the top of your game, but if you don’t understand, you risk being obsolete quickly.



Revisiting the engagement model with consumers It is estimated that on average, 3,500 to 5,000 commercial messages are bombarded at each consumer every single day. That is an incredible level of information overload. On the other hand, consumer attention span is reducing. They are responding to that by tuning themselves out, putting ad blocks on their devices and those are big risks for marketers. What you do as a marketer is not just improve the ads but to rethink your entire communication and engagement model with your consumers. Mastercard took a very interesting step six years back when we decided not to be purely about advertising, which is story-telling, and said our future will be in story-making, which means we create and curate experiences that money cannot buy but which you can get only through Mastercard. So we went from pure traditional marketing to experiential marketing in a big way and that has really paid off and it’s evident as [in 2019] Interbrand has rated Mastercard the fastest-growing brand across all categories and industries.



Africa’s marketing space Africa is a collection of a diverse set of markets and each market is at a different stage of evolution, with unique cultural nuances, and has its own unique opportunities and ecosystems. Like, for example, in Kenya, the telecom ecosystem is one of the most sophisticated you have. And if you look at South Africa, there is a tremendous amount of sophistication in terms of advertising and marketing and you have got a whole bunch of other countries in different stages of evolution and specialization. So Africa is a continent of huge opportunities that every single company and brand is very seriously focused on and we at Mastercard are no exception either. The population is huge, it is very resourced and there’s an upward mobility of the population and that’s where the biggest of opportunities come for any brand.



Need for innovation As marketers, we have to understand digital technology and we have to leverage data while fully respecting and honoring the privacy of consumers. At Mastercard, for example, we created the Priceless digital marketing engine which tries to understand and predict the micro trends that are going to be happening in the overall society. After identifying the trend, we then try to figure out its relevance and commercial and communication opportunity for us. That’s one example of how we’re trying to break through all the noise.



Competition If you look at the penetration of digitization of the entire economy, cash is still dominant. The digital economy is less than 15% globally and less than 5% in some countries and that’s a huge opportunity. So, the competition is not with some brands out here, it is cash and cash is our competition. So we compare ourselves with what consumers are exposed to and we want to be at the top of their mind. People have been using cash for a long time and it’s not easy to change habits; it takes time.



Avoiding consumer mistrust When you are trying to constantly keep selling something to consumers and if the consumers’ experience is different than what the brand has promised them, there’s a big break of trust and today, the trust amongst consumers about brands and brand communication is, generally speaking, very low; there is a trust deficit. So brands have a lot of work ahead of them. They have to strive to rebuild, regain the trust, and to do that, there are a few key principles that are critical. Brands have to be authentic by not trying to fool consumers, be consistent in terms of commitment and follow through with action as well as respect consumers, practically, when it comes to privacy. Lastly, it’s extremely important for brands to be relevant to consumers as well as have a purpose.



Challenges for marketing Reaching people at the right time, fashion and right context is not very easy. It requires a lot of technology and a lot of talent locally to deploy technology effectively. So the first big challenge for marketers is how do you find the right talent? And it’s important to develop, attract and retain the talent. What we have to as marketers, therefore, is to connect with the professors, go through them and help them come up with the most contemporary and useful curriculum. How do you enable these marketers to do the best marketing that they can by creating common standards across the industry, having the right kind of tools and methodologies? Getting these going off the ground in any given country or region is not an easy thing but something we have to do.



– Interviewed by Steven Muvunyi

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‘Cash Is Our Competition’

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Mastercard: Diligent About Digital In Africa

Woman in cafe shopping online with laptop

The Forbes Guide to Credit Cards

Entersekt never would have been established in 2007, were it not for the audacious claims by a B.Comm student and the activities of an unknown bank fraudster, which stirred up the emotions of four electronic engineering students: Christiaan Brand, Dewald Nolte, Altus van Tonder and Niel Müller.
The Stellenbosch-based software house is a fast-growing African player, which wants to establish itself in the States, the United Kingdom and beyond. Most of the major South African banking groups have already signed up Entersekt, which has been certified by Visa, MasterCard and American Express to integrate with their 3-D secure payments system. It has become an ally of the domestic banking industry in dealing with online fraudsters.
Bank corruption is one of the principal cyber-crimes in the world. According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, the South African banking industry incurred losses of R263.3 million ($29.6 million) in 2009/2010 for card fraud. These fraudulent activities increased by 53% in 2010/2011 to R403.1 million ($45.4 million).
According to Schalk Nolte, chief executive of Entersekt, independent statistics from IT Web show that web phishing in South Africa amounted to R320 million ($36 million) in 2011. In the second half of 2012, bank fraudsters used online banking to harvest around R100 million ($11.3 million) illegally. The country has registered 3% of the world’s phishing activities, while 46% occur in the States and 19% in the United Kingdom.
Dewald Nolte remembers how, during a challenging week filled with tests, a self-assured B.Comm student confronted him and a group of engineers, while they strolled to the Langenhoven Student Centre for a meal.
“Here I am, relaxing, and you poor guys are working so hard but I’m still going to make a fortune, much more than you engineers,” he said.
Nolte, Brand, van Tonder and Müller, who all possessed an entrepreneurial spirit, became more committed to pursuing a successful business career after the encounter. The group met weekly to brainstorm the inception of the right business. Their ‘aha’ moment came through default, not design. Brand’s mother became victim of an online banking fraudster and lost R20,000 ($2,250). Brand couldn’t believe how this was possible in an age of one-time password (OTP) access logins and online security systems.
The four students worked around the clock for over a year in a virtual garage to mastermind Entersekt.
Their enormous investment of time and money to invest seed capital for the establishment of Entersekt, conjures images of Bill Gates, the Beatles and the 10,000-hour rule mentioned by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. He claims that 10,000 hours are needed to secure greatness and mastery; Mozart, The Beatles and Gates are some examples. The Beatles performed in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times between 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time. Gates spent 10,000 hours programing on a high-school computer in 1968, aged 13.
The four students amassed their 10,000 hours by developing a prototype, which was conceptualized into a company in 2008. Its revolutionary technology was registered at a patent-office in the same year.
The pioneers needed the intervention of two more leaders to propel the idea from their virtual garage to the commercial marketplace.
Earlier in his career, Schalk Nolte was one of 33 expatriates sent to Nigeria by Vodacom to manage a possible new venture. The deal was eventually scuttled because of shareholder concerns. Twenty eight of the expatriates remained in Nigeria to form a new management company to run V-mobile Nigeria. With Nolte at the helm of network expansion, they grew their clients from 300,000 to a couple of million, while the numbers at the base station increased from 300 to 2,500.
Nolte was approached to join Entersekt, after it had been patented but was not yet commercially formed. He realized that banks wouldn’t do business with a virtual garage start-up.
“We had to establish a presence and an address and the technopark in the technological hub [of Stellenbosch] was appealing,” he says.
Through Schalk Nolte’s acquaintance with Ramzi Mansour of Carita Investments in Nigeria, he set up a meeting in Centurion between Mansour and Dewald Nolte.
“He decided to invest in us not only because of the idea of our business but because of the people. He said he could see the passion in our eyes,” says Dewald Nolte.
Securing the finances was a considerable challenge for the students, who lacked collateral, especially in 2008 when the global recession was in full swing.
“We had to pull through tough times, pay ourselves nothing and invest everything into the seed capital of the company to succeed. In hindsight, it proved to be the right way of doing it,” says Schalk Nolte.
In internet banking a two-factor authentication system is used based on something you know, your username and password, and something you have, a cellphone. Unfortunately, such an authentication system, which relies on browser communication, can be defeated.
In the real world, people are sent a phishing e-mail; if they click on the link, they will get routed to a fake banking website, which fools them into entering their username and password. This fake site, in real time, runs a script and enters the credentials into the real bank account. When the real bank receives the credentials it sends an OTP or asks the user to generate this OTP on the token. When you enter your OTP, it is intercepted by the man in the middle, who now has access to your username, password and OTP.
The beauty of Entersekt’s system, however, is that it uses industry-standard electronic certificates to create a secure out-of-band communication channel, based on mutual authentication between a bank and its customers’ mobile devices, according to Nolte. These certificates are deployed using a light-weight application that is available for hundreds of cellphone models on the iOs, Blackberry, Android Windows Phone and Java platforms. An electronic transaction initiated through any channel (online banking, card-not-present and via the ATM) is sent to the bank customer’s mobile device for confirmation before the transaction takes place.
In the OTP system it goes via the internet, where the fraudsters have access, while this system is beyond the reach of fraudsters as customers respond to real-time requests for transactions by selecting ‘accept’ or ‘reject’. The bank retains control over the process of registering users and all communication is encrypted end-to-end and cannot be intercepted by any other party, says Nolte.
The result is true out-of-brand, two-factor authentication that counters phishing and other kinds of fraud. This system has cut online banking fraud for Entersekt’s clients to zero and annually re-issues certificates per client.
“We have found that our contracts become a net saving for the banks and not a cost increase.
When Entersekt sold their technology to Nedbank, the crime moved to other banks.
“It’s like a burglary in your street. If you increase your security and use more burglar-bars, the criminals might target your next-door neighbors,” he added.
Although the company has established a local footprint—with eight of their 10 clients based in South Africa—it has received international recognition and the demand for its services is growing. Entersekt has patented their technology in the States, United Kingdom, China and India and is aggressively pursuing markets in Nigeria and Kenya.
“We were nominated at the world’s biggest security conference in San Francisco in 2011 as one of the top 10w most innovative companies globally. We are 18 to 24 months ahead of our competitors in terms of technology,” says Nolte.
Protection to safeguard their assets is one thing; expansion to ensure a bigger global presence is a different proposition all together.
“We have a staff presence and a small office in London and we are about to open an office in Atlanta in the States… We have to be where the new ideas, the standards and the concepts are created,” he adds.

Tag: MasterCard