The Bahrain’s Benefit Pay payments set to surpass $4 Billion this year. The surged digitalization as well as core transition within the FinTech arena, swiftened due to the global COVID-19 Pandemic, will witness GCC Payment arena jump other economies within the year 2021.
The Financial Services Director, Dalal Buhejji, at Bahrain’s Economic Development Board stated that: “There is absolutely no doubt that the COVID-19 has definitely acted as a catalyst for the digitalization drive throughout the territory, as well as the manner in which Gulf Citizens spending that has transitioned for the better.”
Within this year in 2020, the Arab Monetary Fund has launched “Buna”, A cross-border payments platform for Arab League, while the GCC Nations launched GCC Payments Firm, that will be instrumental in creating as well operating a cross-border, multi-currency, real-time system throughout the territory.
The Clients are also turning hugely comfortable with the advent of the digitalized payments. Within the September 2020, the SAMA (Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority) directed regard the fact that the nation’s cashless transactions target 28 percent within the cease of 2020 as well as has suggestively surpassed with E-transactions creating up to 37 percent of rest of Financial Transactions within the Kingdom.
It coincided alongside a similar outcome that emerged within the UAEs territory, wherein during a survey done by Dubai Police, Dubai Economy as well as VISA during much earlier this year, depicted a 68 percent of respondents within UAE have curbed procuring in-store since the very eruption of the Pandemic, while 49 percent procure via online.
Within the Bahrain, the overall payment transactions via BenefitPay have already conveyed to have surged up through an astounding 367 percent so far during this particular year, thereby crossing BHD1.5 Billion ($3.99 Bn) output within November. With the festive season already approaching on doorstep, it quite appears that overall transaction value will be approaching in excess of $4Bn within the cease of this year.
Buhejji further elaborated that: “While no-one could have forecast a pandemic, the Gulf has remained well prepared. In Bahrain we arranged the foundation for surviving with this shift in client behaviour when we carried in a number of tech-friendly laws and regulations, announced a commercial 5G network and brought ‘AWS’ initial data centre in the GCC to the kingdom.” .
“Where beforehand the Gulf may have been stereotyped as late adopters of developing technologies, statistics like these demonstrate that we are not only concluding the gap between us and other regions, we will soon be advancing them. Thereby, It’s a huge dynamic time for the entire Gulf ecosystem.”
