MENA Market Overview
With over 100 million Internet users, and an average Internet penetration rate of 37% (above the global average), the Middle East and North Africa region is still considered to be underdeveloped when it comes to online payments.
Some regions, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the UAE, have over 50% of their population on the internet with overall Internet users growing by over 15% in 2014 alone. This market is one you want to look at being in.
To accept online payments in this region you need to find the right payment solution that can provide the most popular options. By setting up one Paymentwall account, you can have all the best payment options that you can see listed below based on popularity. Paymentwall already provides merchants from 180+ different countries access to the top Middle East and North African payment options to help them expand in this market.
Key Payment Methods
To know about the key payment methods in this market, you have to look at how the population stores their money – it is mostly cash. With over half of the population in the MENA being unbanked and without bank cards, prepaid cards and mobile payments are the most popular methods by users.
Users from MENA region prefer to pay with local prepaid payment options including Onecard and other prepaid cards. By providing more than just credit cards, you will be able to earn the most possible revenue.
Paymentwall also provides its own prepaid card – MINT a cash-based payment solution. MINT can be easily bought from one of our many resellers and allows users to easily pay since there is no need to create an account.
Paymentwall continues to expand in the MENA region with our mobile payment solution – Mobiamo. Mobiamo is already connected with the regions top carriers including Etisalat, Mobinil, Vodafone, STC, Zain, Mobily, Du, and Umniah to allow anyone with a mobile device to pay in the Middle East and North African region.
Paymentwall continues to see growth in all the different online industries with the hottest revenue being online games as we have seen an increase in online game spending of 21% over the past year. If you are looking to enter a new market with your game, be sure to check out the MENA region.
If you have any questions, please email bizdev@paymentwall.com.