PayTabs Partners with a Local Payment Solutions Provider in Iraq to Drive Digital Payment Growth in the Country

PayTabs is an award-winning payment solutions company founded in 2014 in Saudi Arabia. It empowers entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises in the MENA region to achieve their full potential in online payment performance and allowing businesses to make digital transactions and receive customer payments.

Recently, the company announced its collaboration with Amwal Payment Services, a local payment solutions provider in Iraq, to help power digital payment processing and transform small and medium-sized businesses.

The consistent rise in the e-commerce business strategy has brought in an impressive number of followers in Iraq with curiosity tapping into the market but with no tools to scale their online businesses.

Amwal is an electronic payment service established in 2009 and is responsible for installing lots of Point of Sale (POS) facilities across Iraq. The company was given an official license by the Central Bank of Iraq to issue, acquire, and process global electronic payments, especially MasterCard in the region. Amwal has been collaborating with the Central Bank of Iraq to offer several financial services to banks, such as upgrading banks to online banking systems.

The B2B payment solutions provider, in collaboration with Amwal, seeks to expand into the Iraqi market to create digital transformation in payment and transaction processing. It also seeks to enhance e-commerce enterprises and operations in the region. To achieve these objectives, it aims to facilitate online payments, recurring payments, e-invoicing and multiple payment options.

According to data from the World Bank, only 23% of Iraqi residents have access to an account at a financial institution. Most companies in the region still operate their business in cash, with only 26% of enterprises in Iraq using digital banking systems. An estimated 98% of employers make their purchases or transactions in hard currency. Nearly half of those also pay their suppliers in notes.

William Glass, a FinTech entrepreneur whose mission is to improve financial well-being globally, once highlighted the prerequisites to succeed in a new market during expansion. “When a payment company expands into a new market, it’s important that they first understand what made them successful in their current market. Answer the question, what problem do you solve for your customers and what makes you better than other methods of making payments? From there, expansion into the new market is about finding the customers who most closely resemble those current customers”, he adds.

Paytabs currently supports multiple payment processing across markets in the Middle East and North Africa, enabling businesses to make digital transactions and receive payment from customers. The company facilitates transaction processing in 168 currencies across 49 different industries with multiple alternative payment options such as MasterCard and Visa card schemes. Some of their awards winning products include:

1. Online payments enable merchants and businesses of all shapes and sizes to pay and get paid instantly, seamlessly, and securely all over the globe.
2. Recurring payments enables merchants and businesses that offer consistent services to receive payments from clients. Good examples are SaaS companies and gym memberships.
3. Pay links – a secure payment link that helps merchants and businesses to sell over social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
4. E-invoicing to clients/customers across the globe and receive payments in the country.

Paytabs venturing into the emerging Iraqi market in collaboration with the veteran payment partner, Amwal, will empower Iraq’s small and medium-sized enterprises and e-commerce entrepreneurs towards a seamless digital transformation in payment methods.

The global pandemic has necessitated the increase in the adoption of digital payments in most countries that operate a cash-driven economy, including Iraq. With Paytabs, retailers and businesses in Iraq will benefit themselves by becoming financially viable in the online community and scale up their businesses.

The CEO of PayTabs, Abdulaziz Al Jouf, was excited about the development and made a positive remark. “The e-commerce market in Iraq is at the brink of serious development, and we at PayTabs are excited to become a part of this journey along with entrepreneurs and businesses. The most peculiar attribute about PayTabs is that we are corporate in outlook, but we think and act locally in every market we enter, to have a better understanding of the market needs and then customize our products to suit each business”.

-Abdullah Idris is a freelance writer/content marketer for start-up companies offering financial services. Learn more about his work here