Digital Payments in MENA: 2023 Digital Payment Trends

The rise in digital payments in the MENA region has been stupendous. The phenomenal advance in supporting technology that invariably propels the different modes of cashless payment has been a great impetus too.

Mastercard and Visa had been enjoying the duopoly in the digital payments sector. But with disruptive technology, a lot of new players have emerged. Did you know that 85% of respondents from the region have admitted that they have used at least one digital payment solution in the past couple of months alone and a good 19% no longer used cash at all.

All this was possible only because the end user or the common man accepted digital payment solutions with alacrity. BNPL is another popular solution in the region, in addition to digital wallets, open banking, direct account to account transfer, etc.

Rise in Digital Payments across MENA

Cash still reigns supreme in many Asian countries like India, and in MENA too there is a significant population completely cash-reliant. Nonetheless, the number of consumers depending on one of the myriad digital payment solutions at least once in the past year has seen a remarkable increase.

Greater adoption of BNPL

The Buy-Now-Pay-Later option is increasingly gaining momentum in the region, especially since the post-covid economic stagnancy. Such flexible payment options ensured that economies crawled back to normalcy from the moribund state after the repressive locked-downs. BNPL is most common with ecommerce.

Digital wallets proliferation

When leviathan payments companies like Gpay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay came into MENA, the digital wallet adoption boomed. It is believed that a staggering 4.4 billion global consumers will use digital wallets by 2023. The UAE has been one of the pioneers to lead the way towards a cashless society. As a testament to this fact is the statistics that show 70% of SMEs in the UAE are already fully cashless or anticipate to be by 2024.

A2A payments

A2A payments are facilitated by syncing a customer's account with services, like in the case of recurring online purchases or even paying rent or bills. A whopping 80% of consumers say that their use of A2A payments have increased substantially. The fact that A2A payments are extremely convenient is a given, but what makes it even more attractive is the flexibility while making recurring payments, especially when making household bills. This profoundly benefits the consumers that come under irregular income brackets.

NFC-enabled payments

When digital payments spiked, NFC-enabled payments got a natural fillip too in the MENA region. With NFC payments, you are opening another payment option to customers and have no reservations that it will be appreciated!

Nonetheless, did you know that in the case of NFC payments, who stands to benefit the most? It is you the merchant!

You heard that right, SMEs that cannot afford traditional POS can benefit with NFC enabled payments. All you need to have is a smartphone or a table and that can serve the purpose of a POS machine efficiently. Your smartphone can masquerade as a SoftPOS device. Isn’t that amazing!

It also eliminates the need for any additional hardware. With zero investment, you are giving value addition to your business as well as enhancing customer satisfaction.

Open banking

Fintech products are gaining more acceptance with each passing day. Consumers appreciate the transparency, ease of doing business, convenience, and flexibility that a smorgasbord of Fintech products are capable of offering. 73% of the MENA population are quite accustomed to open banking and it's equally a part of their daily life just like digital wallets.