The UAE’s payments industry, like several other countries in the world, suffered an impact far less severe than initially anticipated due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rising by 17 percent to $8.4 billion from 2015 to 2020, a report has said.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, “Global Payments 2021: All In for Growth”, sheds light on how national markets will recover over the next decade, with growth set to be driven by newfound momentum, including in the UAE.
The UAE has the potential to record sustained growth over the next five years and beyond, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.3 percent from 2020 to 2030, the report said.
The report has revealed payments revenue and total transaction projections for the UAE based on payment instruments including charge card, cheque, high-value credit, electronic credit transfer, current account, and credit, debit, and prepaid cards.
The $14 billion overall worth of revenue payments by 2030 represents an increase of 67 percent from 2020, while the number of transactions is expected to rise from approximately 644 million to over 1.2 billion during the same timeframe – an increase of 94 percent.
“Our comprehensive analysis leads to a sure conclusion that the payments industry of the UAE has played its part in the country’s economic recovery,” said Mohammad Khan, Partner, BCG.
Markus Massi, Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG said, “Innovation in the UAE’s payments industry will continue to gain traction over the decade, which will, in turn, lead to record numbers of digital transactions being registered continuously.”
Over the coming years, the retail revenue of payments in the UAE is projected to witness sizeable increases. In 2020, the retail revenue of payments amounted to $4.7 billion. However, this figure is expected to rise to approximately $7.9 billion by 2030 – an increase of 68 percent – with the number of related transactions also rising by almost 93 percent from 567 million in 2020 to over a billion by 2030.