TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS--(Marketwired - Jan 26, 2017) - ATLAS Mara Limited (LSE: ATMA)

LSE: ATMA
26 January 2017

Atlas Mara signs strategic partnership deal with Visa to deepen electronic payment adoption and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa

Atlas Mara Limited (LON: ATMA), the sub-Sahara African financial services group, is pleased to announce that it has signed a commercial partnership with Visa (NYSE: V), a global payments technology company as part of a wider strategic partnership to introduce a dynamic suite of payment solutions and expand access to electronic payments within the Sub-Saharan Africa region. This partnership will enable Atlas Mara's operating banks across Africa to leverage existing Visa payment platforms such as mVisa and Visa Direct to provide their customers new ways of transacting using convenient payment solutions.

Chidi Okpala, Chief Digital Officer of Atlas Mara said:

"Delivering innovative services to accelerate financial inclusion and more efficiently service our customers is one of our core strategies. Through our partnership with Visa, Atlas Mara will be able to offer a suite of digital and mobile payment solutions for the everyday payments needs of our expanding customer base across Africa".

Contact Details
Investors
John-Paul Crutchley, +971 4 275 6000
Kojo Dufu, +1 212 883 4330

Media
Teneo Strategy, +44 (20) 7260 2700
Anthony Silverman

About Atlas Mara

Atlas Mara Limited (LON: ATMA) is a financial services institution listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its vision is to create sub-Saharan Africa's premier financial services institution through organic and inorganic growth by combining the best of global institutional knowledge with extensive local insights. With a presence in seven sub-Saharan countries, Atlas Mara aims to be a positive disruptive force in the markets in which we operate by leveraging technology to provide innovative and differentiated product offerings, excellent customer service and accelerate financial inclusion in the countries in which the Company operates. For more information, visit www.atlasmara.com

About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks - VisaNet - that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews.

Notes
In 2016, Visa launched mVisa, a new mobile payment service that brings, for the first time in Africa, an interoperable, versatile and secure mobile payment solution, powered by Visa and its partner financial institutions. With mVisa, consumers can directly access their funds in their bank accounts to pay merchants (person-to-merchant or P2M) or individuals (person-to-person or P2P). Because the transaction runs through the Visa network, the consumers and merchants do not need to be customers of the same bank or mobile operator.

Visa Direct provides cardholders the ability to transfer funds seamlessly, quickly and securely over any channel, be it personal computers, mobile phones, local bank branches, or ATMs) and can be funded from many sources (including bank accounts or payment cards).