Still In Its Infancy, du Pay Envisions a Cashless UAE By 2031

Many nations and regions want to achieve a cashless society, but few have actually done so. Leading telco operator du hopes to help change that in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with its relatively new du Pay service, and to become a key prong in the country’s strategy to become cashless by 2031.

That was one of several important topics in a recent conversation between du Pay CEO Nicolas Levi and Shaun Collins, Executive Chairman of CCS Insight, as part of the WinWin Live interview series recently.

“Everybody in the world wants a cashless society,” Levi said, noting the convenience and environmental friendliness of digital payments, among other benefits. “Very few of the countries have been able to achieve it.”

Levi believes that UAE will attain a truly cashless economy: “As is often the case, the UAE has a very strong vision and always gives the means to achieve this vision.”

A cashless UAE would mean literally that: every payment, every loan, every financial transaction would be entirely digital, with services like du Pay being a key part of making that happen.

Mobile payments are already popular in UAE, a country with approximately 10.5 million people but many more residents still rely heavily on cash. Levi estimates that 60-70% of those people have been historically underserved by traditional banks, and continue to rely mostly on cash because of that. 

To achieve a truly cashless UAE, those people will need convenient, trusted access to digital payments apps like du Pay.

Why Telecom Operators Are Vital To Digital Payments

Indeed, du is not a bank – it’s a telecom operator. That might make it seem like an odd player in enabling payments and other financial services.

On the contrary, telecom operators are particularly well-suited to help bring underserved populations into the digital economy – which is why multiple telecom operators in Asia and Africa, in particular, have developed payments apps.

“Telecom operators have huge access to customers – a very huge customer base,” Levi said. “They have a very huge distribution network, so the access to the customer and the cost of acquisition of a customer is much lower than foreign banks, for instance.”

Telcos also boast recognizable, popular brands and enormous amounts of user data that they can leverage in their emerging fintech businesses, too, and better serve large numbers of customers that traditional banks might not even be interested in.

du Pay Is Born – and It’s Growing Up Fast

With that opportunity in mind – as well as the broader goal of enabling a cashless UAE – du set out to create du Pay. It took about 18 months to scale up, including securing an agreement with the central bank, creating the corporate structure, and getting the necessary IT systems in place. du Pay launched just six months ago, in April of this year. In that sense, it’s still a “baby,” as Levi put it – one that is growing leaps and bounds.

While the company doesn’t share specific figures, Levi said that in less than six months, du Pay is beating the operator’s internal projections – which he described as ambitious – by 3-4x.

Inclusion is a big part of the overarching philosophy behind cashless economies. The approximately 6-7 million people in UAE who primarily use cash do so because they did not have a real alternative in the past – no credit cards or other payment cards, for example. But with an app like du Pay on their mobile phone, they can suddenly pay – and be paid – digitally. Moreover, du Pay is available in six languages – a reflection of the country’s diverse workers – to help foster inclusivity and usage.

Levi noted, for example, that there are about 800,000 domestic workers in the country who work in homes and hotels, and are typically paid in cash. But their employers can now use du Pay to pay their wages, further helping to encourage a cashless economy.

“It's very difficult sometimes to get a bank account and a credit card in the UAE,” Levi says, adding that SMEs and very small businesses or individual entrepreneurs are also another underserved market for digital payments and other fintech services.

While du Pay operates as a subsidiary from du, Levi noted that their native integration – in terms of sharing data, brand recognition, technology, and so forth – will continue to unlock lots of new opportunities for both businesses and their customers. This includes areas like pricing plans and bundles, both in the prepaid and postpaid segments, as well as in areas like device financing.Long-term, du Pay anticipates expanding its scope well beyond payments into traditional finance areas like lending, eventually becoming a fintech “super app” that includes anyone and everyone – a must to achieve the vision of a truly cashless society.