Digital Payments: The Impact of Mastercard and AWS Cloud Technologies

This session explores how Mastercard’s digital payment technologies, combined with Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure and services, can transform public sector service delivery, strengthen financial inclusion, and improve government efficiency. It will examine how digital payment ecosystems can support government-to-person (G2P) payments, social protection programmes, tax and fee collection, public service disbursements, and transparent management of public funds.
The session will highlight the potential application of AWS services, including Amazon EC2 for scalable computing, Amazon S3 for secure data storage, AWS Lambda for serverless payment-processing workflows, Amazon API Gateway for secure integration between government platforms and payment systems, Amazon RDS for managing transactional data, and Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring system performance. Where appropriate, AWS IAM, AWS KMS, and Amazon GuardDuty can support identity and access management, encryption, and threat detection.
Participants will explore how Mastercard's payment infrastructure and AWS cloud capabilities can work together to enable secure, scalable, and interoperable digital public services. The discussion will also address cybersecurity, data protection, system resilience, and public-private partnerships as essential components of digital government transformation, with a focus on opportunities for Kenya and other African markets.
Key outcome: Participants will gain an understanding of how digital payments and cloud technologies can help governments deliver services more efficiently, expand access to financial services, improve accountability, and build inclusive digital economies.