Mastercard has announced that it will be using Facebook Messenger to provide QR technology to small businesses in Africa and Asia, to help drive affordable acceptance of electronic and mobile payments.

The Messenger bot will initially launch in Nigeria, where Mastercard will trial a new Masterpass QR bot to help businesses accept QR payments. Ecobank and Zenith Bank will support the inaugural programme.

Businesses can send a request to the bot to enable QR payments, receive approval from the bank, set up an account and start accepting digital payments securely. Once the account set up process is complete, business owners can print and display the QR code in their stores or save the code on their phones.

Customers can pay by either scanning the code from their smartphone or by entering the merchant ID associated with the QR code into their feature phone.

Kahina Van Dyke, director of payments and financial services partnerships at Facebook, commented: “Brands and developers around the world are turning to messaging to connect with the 1.3 billion people who use Messenger each month. We are pleased that Mastercard is developing a service on the Messenger Platform to help small merchants use messaging to manage their business and connect with their customers.”

In separate news, Mastercard has announced a partnership with SAP and their connected vehicles network platform. Through the collaboration, consumers in the US will be able to complete live transactions in the car for things such as parking, fuel, and food ordering and delivery. Additionally, Mastercard is working with Postmates to offer on demand food ordering and delivery within the vehicle.

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