Mastercard, program in Albania for electronic payments - From May 1, 750 free POS terminals for merchants
American card company Mastercard has introduced a new program in Albania to accelerate the acceptance of electronic payments. Through the POSI program, the company will provide free POS terminals to merchants, with the aim of promoting the use of electronic payments, financial inclusion and the formalization of the economy.
According to Prime Minister Edi Rama, the digital revolution must be further deepened, highlighting that 83% of those businesses that use POS have seen an increase in their dynamics and number of customers.
"From this program, MasterCard will distribute 4750 free POS terminals, so that hotels, restaurants, markets and taxis can access them without being forced to go out and pay for them in the market. Not only that, but MasterCard also has a certain limit for users of these terminals, who do not pay any commission, i.e. 0% of the commission up to a certain annual threshold. If they cross the threshold, then they will start paying commission."
MasterCard President for Europe, Mark Barnett, emphasized that the program will officially launch on May 1 of this year.
"The program starts on May 1, 2025, just a few days from today."
The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko, stated that the Albanian economy could save billions of euros by replacing physical cash payments with electronic payments.
"By replacing 35% of payments with physical cash with cards, an average of about 2 billion lek could be saved at the economy level. Furthermore, if this replacement, that is, of cash payments with physical cash, with card payments at the rate of 70%, were to be carried out, then about 8 billion lek would be saved at the economy level."
Although POS terminals have doubled and card payments have increased 7-fold in the last 4 years, our country still lags behind many other European countries. This is due to the ingrained culture of Albanians for making cash payments, or the costs that businesses incur from making transactions with POS terminals.
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