Cover story: Mastercard’s regional head on developing a financially equitable future In this exclusive interview, Raghu Malhotra, president of Mastercard Middle East and Africa speaks of the importance of financial inclusion, of leveraging key technologies and offers advice to leaders on handling a crisis by Zainab Mansoor July 25, 2021 Harbouring a vision of a financially inclusive, digitalised society and working relentlessly towards realising this mammoth task are two distinct realities. Raghu Malhotra, president for Middle East and Africa (MEA) at technology giant Mastercard, has the unique opportunity of not just having that vision, but also bringing it to life. “We want to get one billion people financially included into the formal economy by 2025,” says Malhotra, who is currently overseeing the company’s growth strategies across 69 countries. That the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic implications left the world reeling is nothing new. In the weeks and months following the outbreak, a new ecosystem seemingly cannibalised the old, causing a departure from the traditional ways of how people worked, shopped, and lived.