Mumbai, Apr 18 (IANS): Global payments major Mastercard on Thursday said it is committed to empowering 10 million merchants across India with digital payments acceptance capabilities by 2020.

Currently, about five million merchants across the country are equipped to accept digital payments, the company said during REACH-Mastercard Acceptance Summit 2019 here.

"Merchants are an important element of India's digital economy," said Rajeev Kumar, Senior Vice President, Market Development, South Asia, Mastercard.

The commitment to increase digital payments acceptance among merchants requires three critical things - education and awareness, development of low cost acceptance solutions, and merchant on-boarding through accelerator programmes.

Mastercard said it was partnering with fintech companies, payments facilitators, industry bodies, acquirers and regulators for the purpose.

The company is also working in collaboration with various banks to expand the acceptance network, Mastercard said, adding that its partnership with RBL Bank has added over 500,000 merchant acceptance or Point-of-Sale (PoS) locations since demonetisation in November 2016.