MasterCard is looking to collaborate with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to develop advanced digital payments across various governorates in Egypt, aiming to make the New Administrative Capital (NAC) the first cashless city in the country, Invest-Gate reports.

This came during a meeting between Vice Chairman and President of Strategic Growth at Mastercard Michael Froman and Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, where their talks focused on the company’s investment plans in the country in the field of electronic government payments and collections, according to a ministerial statement on February 15.

During the meeting, Froman laid out MasterCard’s plans that are aimed at supporting the technological infrastructure in NAC, while also presenting proposed solutions to introduce e-payments to the transport, agriculture, and SMEs sectors in Egypt.

On his part, Talaat highlighted that “the move should encourage e-commerce, as part of plans to make Egypt a regional hub for such cross-world industry and for the mounting global growth for these trade activities,” stressing on the importance of benefiting from MasterCard’s experiences to meet the country’s strategic plans and initiatives for shifting into a cashless society.

On January 15, the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) announced that it will sign a partnership agreement with MasterCard to begin providing NAC with electronic payments on January 21, in which the latter will provide consulting services to ACUD in the field of electronic payments, while offering the necessary technical expertise for the operation of advanced technological solutions.

According to an earlier statement, the partnership will be implemented over three phases; the first of which includes studying the objectives of ACUD, determining priorities, and developing a working map, as well as setting a criteria for choosing one or more banks for the service’s provision.