UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay, which is the biggest bankcard association in China, recently forged a partnership with the French bank Société Générale SA to make its cards accepted by merchants in eight additional African countries.

The eight new countries are Guinea, Madagascar, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Chad. At present, the company's business operates in 48 countries in Africa.

With the ongoing development of the business, the construction of the company's payment card network is rapidly maturing.

In recent years, cooperation between China and African countries has seen rapid development, especially in the fields of infrastructure, online communication and consumer trade. In addition, more and more Chinese companies and people are moving and traveling to Africa, so UnionPay International has more impetus to facilitate convenient payment services for its cardholders.

In South Africa, half of ATMs accept UnionPay cards; in Mauritius, 90 percent of merchants and 70 percent of ATMs accept UnionPay; in Morocco, virtually all merchants accept UnionPay cards.

UnionPay International is about to sign a cooperation agreement with Barclays Africa, a major global financial services provider, which will allow the company’s ATMs and merchants to accept UnionPay. This agreement will greatly advance the UnionPay network, said Li Zhixian, general manager of the African branch of UnionPay International.

Currently, the global network of UnionPay International covers more than 150 countries and regions. Unionpay card can be used at over 27 million merchants and 1.9 million ATMs. The company is on its way to building the world's largest payment card network.

The global payment card market generated $17.26 trillion in purchase value in 2014, according to the market research firm Packaged Facts. Transactions using UnionPay cards totaled $5.92 trillion in 2014, which represented 34.3 percent of the market. Visa and MasterCard amounted to 27.6 percent and 19 percent respectively.