UAE: mobile payment users 2025

A prediction on how mobile wallet users in the United Arab Emirates will develop states that klip - launched only in late 2020 - will have overtaken other apps by 2025. This expectation comes from klip being part of a joint nationwide initiative to replace physical cash with digital payments, and was rolled out by several financial institutions at the same time - including the UAE Banks Federation, the Central Bank and several national banks. The app's developer, Emirates Digital Wallet or EDW, mentions that klip works with QR codes and is meant to take over any instance where physical cash is being used. Indeed, the EDW mentioned that klip is "the only interoperable solution between merchants and consumers in the UAE". Whilst the United Arab Emirates did not register the highest unbanked population in the world in 2021, roughly one out four consumers in the consumer did not have access to financial services in 2021.

Number of users of selected mobile wallets in the United Arab Emirates in 2020, with forecasts from 2021 to 2025 (in millions)

Characteristic	eWallet (Etisalat)	Beam	klip	Payit
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-

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Release date

October 2021

More information

Region

United Arab Emirates

Survey time period

May 2021

Special properties

The source does not provide any information regarding consumers using more than one app at the same time. It may, therefore, be that the total users of all apps combined is higher than the country's population

Supplementary notes

The source explicitly states that "we look (...) only for open wallets, ie those that have the ability to make payments on multiple sites, rather than in reference to an ability to transfer funds between different wallets. Thus we do not focus on transactions conducted via cards stored by a retailer purely for use on that retailer’s website or mobile app."

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