EXCLUSIVE—Mastercard plans to use its digital payments technology, combined with solar technology, to bring energy to those in rural areas that do not have access to traditional means of powering their homes and lives, the company announced today at the start of the Mobile World Congress.

Alongside its other announcements at the conference, where companies like Samsung and Sony will also be displaying their latest mobile innovations, Mastercard will be utilizing mobile payment services to bring energy to users in countries like Uganda, where the innovation is first rolling out.

Users will finance the purchase of a solar panel through solar technology company M-KOPA, before paying for daily energy—which will cost approximately five cents per day—by scanning a QR code on the panel itself, Kiki Del Valle, senior vice president, commerce for every device, digital payments for Mastercard, told Bank Innovation.

“We’re putting Mastercard in the center of it,” del Valle said, adding that just 7% to  8% of the population in the rural areas of Uganda currently has reliable access to electricity.

In addition to its solar initiative, Mastercard is also expanding its work with mobile network operators, launching “a suite of digital payments and data” tools, Del Valle said, something that will “bring significant value to the ecosystem,” she said.

The tool will allow merchants to support everything from digital wallets to enabling “micro-merchants” to process digital payments, Del Valle said. The company is approving a “number of different partnerships” with mobile network operators in countries like Uganda and Tanzania, Del Valle said.

These tools will allow merchants to facilitate e-payments “anywhere that Mastercard is accepted,” Del Valle said.

The company will also be making changes to its Mastercard Engage platform, she said, expanding its company directories in notable areas like IoT. The engage platform allows merchants and startups to more easily connect, Del Valle said, instead of wasting time and money searching for the perfect project partner.

“The Engage [platform] is intended as a communication platform,” Del Valle said, adding that it is helping to better facilitate relationships between Mastercard merchants and IoT providers.

To learn more about mobile payments and technologies, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to register.