Mint Expands Payroll Card Footprint Into Africa

Mint Gateway for Electronic Payment Services, a unit of The Mint Corp., is expanding payroll card operations across the African continent, a market that represents significant growth for the company. A recent press release said Mint has entered into an agreement to process Mastercard-branded payroll cards to disburse salaries to government employees. The three-year agreement will initially see 300,000 payroll cards issued.

Mint already operates a similar payroll card program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the firm noted, adding that the deployment in Africa represents a 75 percent increase in the number of pay cards processed by Mint. The firm noted that it plans to complete the rollout of the 300,000 cards across Africa within 12 months.

The Mint Corp. CEO Vishy Karamadam said in a statement, “This is an important evolution for Mint, and showcases our global platform capabilities and the multiple revenue engines residing within Mint’s platform.”

According to Karamadam, Mint is a certified payments processor with both Mastercard and UnionPay. The company is able to issue, process and acquire cards while providing employees with a payroll card solution linked to a mobile wallet and mobile app.

“We are looking forward to the opportunity to implement and expand our service offerings into rapidly growing economies in Africa,” Karamadam added. “We have a robust and proven model in place in UAE, and this expansion further validates our theme of global expansion and focusing on the underbanked.”

The company did not specify which countries in Africa it will target with the payroll card rollout. In addition to its payroll cards, Mint operates a proprietary ATM network for underbanked employees to access cash when they are paid.

Last year, Mint announced a placement of $6 million-worth of shares as it turned its attention to expanding across the Southeast Asia market.