Mastercard and Qashio in new push to digitise business payments in the MENA region
Mastercard, a global payments provider, has partnered with Qashio, a UAE-based fintech company, to launch virtual credit cards for SMEs and other businesses in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, beginning with the UAE.
The partnership seeks to make expense management cashless, transparent, and flexible for SMEs and other businesses in the MENA region.
The value proposition of the new collaboration is that SMEs and other businesses can rely on convenient, cashless, and automated expense management that also simplifies digitisation and enables the modernisation of corporate spend management.
A significant portion of corporate spending in the GCC region is often done using personal credit cards, petty cash, and cheques.
Ground reality
This scenario points to the need to digitise and modernise corporate spend management, which can reduce the reconciliation and manual work currently done by human accountants, resulting in significant time savings for businesses.
Gina Peterson-Skyrme, Vice President and Country Business Development Lead for the UAE & Oman, Mastercard (featured image, right), said: “The UAE is on an accelerated path towards achieving a cashless economy.
“By playing a role in the fintech and SME sectors, Mastercard enables businesses to achieve operational efficiencies through our innovative technology and solutions while supporting the country’s vision of becoming a digital-first economy.
“Qashio’s robust end-to-end spend management platform offers new opportunities for SMEs, and we are pleased to collaborate with them to bring commercial B2B payments to more businesses,” said Petersen-Skyrme (featured image, right).
Armin Moradi, CEO and Co-founder of Qashio, added: “Collaborating with Mastercard is a massive opportunity for the MENA fintech industry.
“Mastercard has provided access to global learning opportunities and lends the stability and security of a multinational firm that is well-known and highly respected in the payments and fintech sectors.”
Enhanced benefits
Qashio’s virtual and physical credit cards and software allow businesses to make their spending more automated and transparent, saving hundreds of person-hours and reducing petty cash leakage.
Finance and HR departments benefit from better expense reporting, better visibility, control of cash flows and an empowered workforce that comes from using Qashio’s offerings.
Qashio operates out of Dubai, UAE, as a comprehensive spend management platform for businesses to manage expense payments with integrated corporate cards and accounts payable automation.
The company integrates real-time tracking for business expenses, automates accounting and provides real-time reporting to give better visibility and accurate control over all spending so that companies can make informed cash flow decisions.
Last Updated on 1 year by Arnold Pinto
