MORE THAN TWO MILLION VISA CARDS IN MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique is one of the five African countries with the largest growth in the use of Visa debit and credit cards this year.Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Thursday, the Visa general director for sub-Saharan Africa, Jabu Basopo, said that the number of cards issued by Visa clients in Mozambique has now reached over two million. The number of transactions using Visa cards between June 2010 and June 2011 was 33 per cent greater than in the previous year. Only four other African countries had registered similar levels of growth, said Basopo, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Angola and Morocco.Visa cards are now available from almost all the 15 commercial banks operating in Mozambique. They allow people holding accounts in these banks to withdraw money at cash machines in any other bank, anywhere in the world, that accepts Visa cards, and to make purchases electronically in shops and other establishments across Mozambique, and in most other countries. The Mozambican cards had been used, in ATMs (cash machines), and at POSs (Points of Sale), more than 2.6 billion times in the year under analysis.“Electronic payments are important for developing a strong and modern economy”, said Basopo. “Visa products promote transparency and responsibility. They reduce transaction costs and they cut the size of the informal and grey economy, thus helping to stimulate economic growth and employment rates”.Visa has waged campaigns to make the public aware of the advantages of paying for their purchases by card, rather than carrying around large amounts of cash. The director of Visa in Mozambique, Christian Bwakira, said that such campaigns will continue in coming years to encourage greater use of cards. In cooperation with the banks, Visa also intends to invest in training bank staff in risk management, in order to avoid the use of Visa cards to commit bank frauds.