MasterCard International held a payment cards conference in Nairobi, Kenya

Banking and technology delegates will attend the three-day conference from over 10 sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. A number of card payment technology and solution providers will also be exhibiting at the conference. Topics to be discussed at the conference include current developments and movements in the African payments cards market; how African financial institutions should position themselves to face future changes; the uptake of cards throughout Africa and the long-term business opportunities both within and outside the payments field. West believes that the conference will provide financial institutions with the necessary skills to develop and implement successful MasterCard payment card initiatives in their respective countries. ATMs and card payments are widely established in some African countries, particularly South Africa, Mauritius and Kenya. However, throughout the vast majority of African countries, cash is the primary means of payment. This explains why plastic payment cards and electronic commerce have made such slow progress. According to West, although African banks are now making significant moves to embrace electronic banking, the problem facing all card issuers in Africa is the weak telecommunications infrastructure. The conference will also be informing African financial institutions on how to utilise new smart card and m-commerce technology to overcome this lack of infrastructure.