Saudi Arabia among top countries globally for contactless payment adoption: Visa

Saudi Arabia among top countries globally for contactless payment adoption: Visa

Saudi Arabia is among the top markets globally for contactless payment adoption, with nine in 10 transactions made with contactless cards or devices throughout the Kingdom, according to digital payments giant Visa.

In line with Saudi Vision 2030’s goal to reduce the country’s reliance on cash, Saudi Arabia has made great strides in near-field communication adoption, Visa’s General Manager for GCC cluster Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman Ali Bailoun told Al Arabiya English.

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“The Kingdom has taken important steps in introducing new and different payment methods – enabling popular technologies such as Apple Pay and online debit card payments that were not possible before,” said Bailoun.

“A Visa study in collaboration with Saudi Payments found that contactless payments adoption in Saudi Arabiagrew from 4 percent in 2017 to 94 percent at the end of 2020, placing [the Kingdom] first overall in MENA and globally above the EU average and ahead of Hong Kong and Canada. And this is no surprise given that nine out 10 transactions in Saudi are made with contactless cards or devices,” he added.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ecommerce has become a