Global payment network processor, Mastercard, has entered a partnership with Ethiopian Minerals Petroleum and Biofuel Corporation (EMBPC), aimed at solidifying the digitizing of the corporation’s mineral e-commerce platform.
The partnership, according to Mastercard’s President of Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Dimitrios Dosis, was part of the EMPBC’s strategic objectives to provide access to market and officially tunnel the available minerals to the international market.
While announcing the deal, Dosis said through Mastercard’s innovative Payment Gateway Solutions (MPGS), EMBPC could diversify and expand its offering.
“The partnership between Mastercard and EMPBC is the first implementation of an e-commerce platform solely focused on minerals in Ethiopia,” he said.
“This is proof of our ongoing commitment to collaborate with governments, providing world-class digital solutions to partners’ in-market, and scaling up our relationship with financial institutions,” Dosis said.
The CEO of EMPBC, Rahel Getachew, who also confirmed the development, said it would provide EMPBC with the solutions required to digitize their e-commerce platform, as well as collaborate on product development and standardization, promotion and marketing, training and capacity development, and technical advisory support.
“Despite various factors such as traditional methods of mining, Ethiopia’s present gemstone trade generates an estimated 20 million dollars in annual export transactions.
“With the digitization of EMPBC’s minerals marketplace, the gemstone sector is expected to triple in less than two years and grow to $500M in five years through the new e-commerce platform,” said Getachew.
“In addition to the above, partnerships of this nature create vast opportunities for fintech to participate in in-country e-commerce platform development, of which Eaglelion is the e-commerce platform developer for EMPBC,” he added.