As of 2018, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) has four (4) main
electronic payment networks, namely Private (On Us), Gim-Uemoa, Visa and MasterCard.
According to the Central Bank of West African States(Bceao) in a report devoted to the issue, these
entities enable cross-border electronic payment transactions on a deployed acceptor network
at the regional and/or international level, through the harmonization and standardization of their infrastructure
acceptance.
Within the Private network, explains the institution, the financial institution is the sole issuer and purchaser of
transactions.
The holder, customer holding a credit card and the acceptor each have a contract with the same establishment
financial, operator of the card issuance and transaction acquisition system.
"At the end of December 2018, Visa and Gim-UEmoa are the two most active electronic banking networks in the WAEMU, with
shares of 31.26% and 28.87% respectively.
Gim-VISA private and co-branded cards cover 16.02% and 15.99% of the shares of the
market.
The MasterCard and Gim-Mastercard networks account for only 7.86% of this sector of activity, i.e 5.80% and 2.06% each, for the same period", reveals the Bceao.
In general, the Bceao support that the issuance of cards on all electronic payment networks has
posted positive growth in the EU at the end of 2018.
"As of December 31, 2018, the Visa network posted 1,847,852 cards issued, an increase of 25.38% per
report to 2017. The growth rates of private cards and those of GIM-UEMOA came out
18.49% and 17.06% respectively in 2018.
Regarding the number of cards issued on the MasterCard network, an increase of nearly 121% was noted,
between 2017 and 2018. The volume of Gim-MasterCard co-branded cards increased by 548.59%, which translates
the production of 103,196 units over the aforementioned period", details the Bceao.
She added that MasterCard cards increased in number by 187,566, a growth of 120.97%.
These figures could be explained by MasterCard's new strategy, since 2015, which has placed Africa
among its priority markets.
According to the Bceao, the American company has forged many partnerships with well-established players,
in particular, the pan-African Ecobank Group (36 African countries), the technical operator WARI (35 African countries), the
Uba bank or the online sales platform Jumia.