Saturday July 1, 2017
A general view of the tent camp where thousands of Somali immigrants on April 30, 2013, in Mogadishu,Somalia. (iStock)
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There are millions of refugees living in camps around the world who are both paid and pay for goods and services the same way anyone else would.
Mastercard is looking at making the process easier through research that’s made way for a new digital blueprint.
“Our ambition is to look at ways to not only help refugees themselves economically prosper, but also to have the host community grow in an inclusive way,” says Paul Musser, Senior Vice President of Public Private Partnerships at Mastercard.
The aim is to bring efficiency to the way refugees handle money, by combining digital access to things like banking, healthcare, and education to other basic needs.
He says refugee camps were originally created with the intention of being temporary, and though payment options vary within them, some tend to be old-fashioned like paper punch cards.
“So what we’re proposing is to use the same types of tools and services that Canadians and people from the United States or Europe already are quite used to – a plastic card, if they have a mobile phone let’s give them a mobile wallet.”
As refugees work to become more empowered and independent, Mastercard hopes to help people looking to rebuild their lives do so in a faster more reliable way.
The digital blueprint will allow Mastercard and its partners to create a system that streamlines payment processes. It will also provide transparency when it comes to financial transactions, that would also be more easily tracked.